Nutrient Uptake and Economics of Summer Greengram as Influenced by Residual Effect of Paddy Residues and Fertility Levels

One of the main reasons for India’s decreased food production is the depletion of soil fertility. The primary causes of soil deterioration are lack of awareness among farmers and lack of land use regulations. By limiting the erosion and enhancing the nutrients available to the crops, conservation agriculture increases the organic matter content of the soil and contributes to the improvement of field conditions. But compared to conventional agriculture, the practise of conservation agriculture is less advanced. And also there is a dearth of research on the use of crop residues for the management of soil fertility. So this study was undertaken in order to examine the impacts of crop residue, inorganic fertilizers and cropping system as a component of an integrated crop residues and fertility management system on nutrient uptake and net returns of greengram.

The experiment consists of strip plot design and was carried out during 2020–21 and 2021–22 under zero till conditions at College Farm, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU to study the effect of previous crop residues and fertility levels on succeeding greengram.

According to the data, greengram absorbed more nutrients at various growing stages. The residual effect of incorporation of residues treated with microbial consortia composed of Trichoderma viridae, Aspergillus awamori and Phanerocheate spp. along with 300:100:100 kg ha^-1 of N, P₂O₅ and K₂O (125% RDF) and phosphorous supplied in the form of single super phosphate (SSP) resulted in significantly higher financial returns. In greengram, residue incorporated plots outperformed residue burning, removal and retention plots with 125% RDF in terms of nutrient uptake, as well as monetary returns like gross returns, net returns and B:C ratio. In a similar vein, yield in residue-incorporated plots was higher than it was in residue-removal and in-situ burning plots during summer, 2021 and 2022.