Journal of Food Legumes

A field experiment was carried out to assess the effect of zinc and molybdenum application with farm yard manure (FYM) on productivity and economics of soybean-chickpea cropping system. An experiment comprising of 12 treatments (combination of two levels of FYM in main plot wherein FYM at 5 tonne ha⁻¹ was applied as basal and without; and six levels of micronutrient management in sub plot such as control, 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹, 12.5 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹ + zinc solubilizer, ammonium molybdate (AM) at 1 g kg⁻¹ as seed treatment with 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹, AM at 1 kg ha⁻¹ soil application with 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹, and AM 1 g kg⁻¹ as seed treatment with foliar spray of 0.5% ZnSO₄) was laid out in thrice replicated split plot. Application of FYM (5 t ha⁻¹) improved significantly growth parameters viz. plant height and dry matter accumulation (DMA); yield attributes viz. pod plant⁻¹, seed pod⁻¹, seed plant⁻¹, seed yield plant⁻¹ and 1000 seed weight compared to without FYM. Yield and total biomass increased by 28.2 and 26.3 per cent in soybean and 20.6 and 17.5 per cent in chickpea, respectively. Further, AM at 1 g kg⁻¹ as seed treatment with foliar spray of ZnSO₄ at 0.5% significantly enhanced soybean yield and yield parameters during the study. The yield advantage in soybean following its application was 40.6 per cent higher as compared to control. Similarly, growth and yield parameters of chickpea were significantly improved with soil application of AM 1 kg ha⁻¹ along with 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹. The plots with the above treatment had the highest grain yield (35.0 per cent higher in comparison to control). The maximum net return (` 84197 ha⁻¹) and B/C ratio (3.34) of the system were also obtained when crop was applied with 5 t ha⁻¹ FYM as compared to without it Among the micronutrient management, the highest net return (84725 ha⁻¹) was accrued with AM 1 kg ha¹ as soil application along with 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹ and B/C ratio (3.38) which was followed by AM 1 g kg⁻¹ as seed treatment along with 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹. However, those treatments were statistically on par. FYM (5 t ha⁻¹) and AM at 1g kg⁻¹ as seed treatment along with 25 kg ZnSO₄ ha⁻¹ was the optimum dose for realizing remunerative crop productivity in the cropping system. Such types of research studies were useful as these are key to scale up pulses productivity under nutrient limiting areas involving soybean based cropping systems of central India.