Sustaining farm productivity through watershed based participatory balance nutrient management: A case study from Semi-Arid Tropics of central India

Participatory trials on balance nutrients were conducted during 2009–12 in a severely micronutrient deficit semiarid central Indian watershed to promote balance use of nutrients. Application of micronutrient increased groundnut pods plant⁻¹ by 9%, seeds pod⁻¹ by 6% and pod yield by 13% (1132 kg ha⁻¹) compared to control in entry point trials. Similarly, chickpea variety "JG-130" grown with balance fertilizers also recorded 15 and 40% higher grain yield compared to "JG-130" and local chickpea variety, respectively grown with traditional practice. Application of B, Zn and S increased mean groundnut pod yield by 16.8% over control in further up scaling trials. The study on residual effect of balance fertilization indicated that grain yield of succeeding wheat, barley, chickpea and mustard increased by 8.3, 10, 8.8 and 9.2%, respectively. Further, the sustainability index of direct balance fertilization to groundnut was 0.8 and it was 0.76, 0.74, 0.76 and 0.83 in residual effect in succeeding wheat, barley, gram and mustard, respectively. Although nearly 88% farmers were convinced by the impact of micronutrients, but only 9% farmers actually used them in kharif, 2012 and availability of micronutrients emerged as the maj or hurdle in up scaling.