Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science

A field study was carried out to find out the relative Zn-enrichment efficiency of different locally available organics and improvement in fertilizer use efficiency (FUE). The enrichment of different organics was carried out with Zn (2.5 and 5.0 kg ha⁻¹ through 500 kg of each organics) by composting the locally available different organics viz., farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure (PM), sewage sludge (SS) and biogas slurry (BGS) for seven weeks. The Zn-enriched organics were used for field experimentation in wheat-maize fodder (F) cropping sequence with wheat as direct crop and maize (F) as a residual crop. The Zn-enriched poultry manure and biogas slurry at Zn 2.5 kg ha⁻¹ improved the average wheat grain yield by about 68 and 43%, respectively, over control (1.82 t ha⁻¹) whereas the same was higher by 32 and 17% over Zn application as zinc sulphate equivalent to 2.5 kg Zn ha⁻¹, respectively. Improvement in grain and straw yield of wheat due to Zn-enriched organics was comparable at both levels of Zn-enrichment i.e. 2.5 and 5.0 kg ha⁻¹. Thus, Zn-enrichment with organics showed possible reduction in Zn application to wheat by one half of the recommended dose of 5 kg Zn ha⁻¹. Also, the application of Zn-enriched organics enhanced the utilization of micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu) by wheat due to direct effect and by maize (F) as residual effect of the treatments. The DTPA-extractable micronutrient status of the soil also improved remarkably due to application of Zn-enriched organics over control under the wheat-maize (F) cropping sequence.