Indian Journal of Agronomy

A field experiment was conducted during 2014–16 at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala to develop sustainable in-tensification package for ‘Gajendra’ elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson] in ‘Robusta’ banana (Musa spp.)-based system using resource conservation practices. Five treatments, comprising conservation organic (T₁), conservation chemical (T₂), cconventional chemical (T₃), conventional (package of practices (PoP)) as control (T₄) and organic management + conventional tillage (T₅), were replicated 4 times in randomized block design. Growth, yield, soil physico-chemical-biological properties, system productivity and profitability of different treatments were studied. Combined analysis of yield indicated that the average corm yield of elephant foot yam was not significantly influenced by treatments, but conservation chemical practice resulted in 13.55% higher yield than conventional POP. Conservation chemical management resulted in the highest bunch yield (44.76 t/ha) of banana, which was on par with all other practices (39–40 t/ha), except organic package (29.48 t/ha). Banana yield under conservation chemical management was 12.97% higher than the conventional PoP. In both the years, higher pH was noticed under conservation organic management, which was on a par with organic package. The conservation chemical treatment enhanced the available K content, which was at par with PoP and conservation organic at the end of 2 years. The exchangeable Ca, Mg, available Mn and Zn status were significantly higher and at par under conservation organic and conventional organic treatments. All the other soil parameters, bulk density, particle density, water-holding capacity, porosity, organic C, EC, available N, P, CEC, population of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes, activity of soil enzymes, viz. dehydrogenase, acid phosphatase and urease were unaffected by the different management practices. In terms of banana + elephant foot yam system, the conservation chemical management proved to be the most productive (+13% over PoP) and profitable (+32%) as revealed from the highest total tuber-equivalent yield (45.34 t/ha), production efficiency (151.13 kg/ha/day), gross income ( 1, 360, 170/ha), net income ( 866, 421/ha) and benefit: cost ratio (2.75).