Productivity and nutrient uptake by soybean as influenced by integrated nutrient and someother agronomic management practices

A field experiment was conducted during 2005–07 under irrigated conditions to study the influence of integrated nutrient and agronomic management on growth, yield and nutrient uptake by soybean and on soil health. The results revealed that application of FYM with NP or NPK improved the yield of soybean over NP or NPK alone treatment. Integrated use of FYM with NPK increased the yield of soybean by 5.9 per cent over NPK alone. Additional application of 30 kg N ha⁻¹ at pre-flowering or at pod initiation did not increase the yield over the basal dose of NP applied at sowing. Use of 4 tonnes wheat straw mulch + 30 kg N, 60 kg P₂O₅ and 30 kg N, 60 kg P₂O₅ ha⁻¹ showed similar effect on seed yield of soybean. Conventional flat sowing and bed sowing of soybean were equally effective in influencing the soybean yield. Pre-emergence application of pendimethalin at 1.5 l ha⁻¹ along with one hand weeding at 40 days after sowing (DAS) and two hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS were equally effective for weed control and in influencing the soybean yield. The application of N, P, K, FYM, in different treatments, treatment with Bradyrhizobium japonicum and sowing on beds all significantly improved the N, P and K uptake by soybean. The inclusion of FYM in the fertilizer treatment resulted in maximum increase in the uptake of these nutrients. The available N and P of the soil also increased but the changes in available K remained inconsistent with different growth factors. Application of FYM increased the organic carbon content of the soil in different treatments.