Effect of continuous cropping and fertilization on crop yields and nutrient status of a typic haplustept

Field experiments were conducted during 2001–01 and 2001–02 on Typic Haplustept at Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur to assess the effect of nutrient application through different sources in maize-wheat cropping sequence. It showed that application of 100% of recommended NPK (90, 30 and 15 kg ha⁻¹) + FYM (10 t ha⁻¹) and 150% of recommended NPK were superior treatments. These two treatments produced 3.40–3.42 t ha⁻¹ of maize and 4.05–4.08 t ha⁻¹ of wheat. After two years of experimentation, it was found that the application of 100% NPK through FYM 10 t ha⁻¹ and fertilizers, 100% NPK + FYM 10 t ha⁻¹ and FYM 20 t ha⁻¹ significantly improved the organic carbon content of soil. A marked buildup of available P content of soil was recorded by applying 100% NPK + FYM @ 10 t ha⁻¹, 100% NPK through FYM @ 10 t ha⁻¹ and fertilizers, FYM @ 20 t ha⁻¹ and 150% NPK, while the available K content was not significantly affected by the treatments. The available soil Zn and S also declined over the years of experiments except when these elements were added to the soil with 100% NPK.