Effect of Integrated Nutrient Management Practices on Enhancing Productivity in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Brinjal is an important vegetable crop in the coastal districts of Odisha. To enhance yields, farmers often depend heavily on chemical fertilizers, which may not always deliver the desired results. To address this, a field experiment was conducted across seven farmer fields to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated nutrient management (INM), combining chemical fertilizers, organic manure, biofertilizers, and micronutrients, in improving brinjal productivity and farmer's income. The experiment followed a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three treatments and seven replications. The treatments comprising Application of NPK: 120:60:60 kg/ha along with FYM-20t/ha and Biofertilizers like Azospirillum, PSB @ 5kg/ha and micronutrient application: Zn and B @ 0.1% twice before flowering (T3) indicated there is significant increase in yield and yield attributing characters over control. The influence of biofertilizer along with optimum dose of fertilizer increased microbial activity and uptake of nutrients which triggered the flowering behaviour and fruit yield in combination with Boron and Zn like micronutrients. The results revealed that Treatment T3 significantly improved yield and yield-attributing characters over the control. The synergistic effect of biofertilizers with the optimum fertilizer dose enhanced microbial activity and nutrient uptake, which in turn improved flowering, fruit set, and yield, further supported by the role of micronutrients such as boron and zinc. T3 recorded the highest fruit yield (428 q/ha) along with the maximum benefit-cost ratio (2.78), followed by T2 (382.2 q/ha; B:C ratio 2.50) and T1 (270 q/ha; B:C ratio 2.09). A similar trend was observed for other growth and yield parameters. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the integrated application of NPK (120:60:60 kg/ha), FYM (20 t/ha), biofertilizers (Azospirillum and PSB @ 5 kg/ha) and foliar sprays of Zn and B (0.1%) significantly enhances brinjal productivity and farmers' income in a sustainable manner.