Impact of Long-term fertilizer application on soil fertility, nutrient uptake, growth and productivity of soybean under soybean-safflower cropping sequence in Vertisol

An experiment conducted during 2011–12 and 2012–13 under the ongoing All India Coordinated Research Project on Long-Term Fertilizer Experiment with soybean-safflower cropping sequence in Vertisol (Typic haplusterts) that commenced form 2006–07 at Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani (M.S.) showed that the nutrients availability in soil, nutrient uptake, yield attributes and yield of soybean were significantly influenced by FYM along with 100% NPK application. The results revealed that the pods per plant (48.65), plant height (49.77 cm plant⁻¹), grain (26.97 q ha⁻¹) and straw (24.65 q ha⁻¹) yield of soybean were significantly increased with 100% NPK+FYM@ 5 Mg ha⁻¹. Conjoint use of FYM with 100% NPK improved the soil properties with respect to bulk density, organic carbon, exchangeable (Ca, Mg, Na & K), cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation (BS), available N, P, K, S, Zn and Fe over initial value of soil. However, a significant buildup of available Zn due to the application of zinc sulphate along with 100% NPK as compared to all other treatments. N, P, K, S, Zn and Feuptake of soybean were increased significantly with the application of 100% NPK+FYM@ 5 Mg ha⁻¹ than other treatment. It can be concluded from these experiment that the balanced use of fertilizers continuously either alone or in combination with organic manure is necessary for sustaining soil fertility and productivity of crop.