Productivity, economics and soil fertility of soybean-safflower cropping system in response to nutrient management practices

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of nutrient management practices on the performance of soybean-safflower sequence in Vertisols. The safflower equivalent yield (2418 kg/ha⁻¹); gross returns (Rs. 53196/ha⁻¹); net returns (Rs 33734/ha⁻¹) and B: C ratio (2.8) were significantly superior either with the application of NPK to the system + 5tFYM/ha to safflower; or NPK to the system + soybean residues to safflower; or NPK to the system + both crop residues. Similar trend was also observed with respect to soil health indicators viz., soil respiration (108 ng C/g soil/10 days), microbial biomass C (284 ng C/g soil), microbial biomass N (41.9 ng N/g soil), mineral N (13.8 ng N/g soil) and net N mineralization (5.4 ng N/g soil/10 days). Significant improvement was observed in terms of PGPR and Trichoderma sp were found when NPK + crop residues were applied to the system.