Influence of Different Fertility Management Practices on Productivity and Economics of Forage Soybean

Quality and higher fodder production is one of the important aspects to get higher productivity from live stock. India suffer a net deficiency of 35.6% green fodder, 10.95% dry crop residues and Jammu and Kashmir faces a net deficit of 19% in fodder. The choice to grow cultivated fodder crops during kharif season in Kashmir is limited and are grown generally under rainfed conditions. The major kharif season fodder cereal crops are maize and sorghum and the legume fodder crops are cowpea and soybean. To improve the quality and yield of fodder crops, it is important to standardise production technology for legume fodder crops.

A field experiment was undertaken at Agronomy Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir during kharif 2019 and 2020 to study the impact of different fertility management practices on productivity and economics of forage soybean. The experiment comprising of seven treatments laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications.

Application of N, P₂O₅, K₂O (30, 90, 45 kg/ha) along with 0.1 tons/ha vermicompost recoded higher green fodder productivity and growth characters of soybean. However application of N, P₂O₅, K₂O (20, 60, 30 kg/ha) was found economically viable option.