Soil Test Crop Response Based Integrated Plant Nutrition System for Brinjal on an Alfisol

Indian population continue to increase and the provision of adequate supply of food remains a challenge. This can be achieved only through further increases in yield involving the enhanced use of fertilisers. With this view an attempt was made to obtain maximum yield while the nutrients available in soil, applied FYM also given consideration apart from applied fertiliser nutrients. Field experiments were conducted on a Typic Rhodustalf soil (red noncalcareous) and fertilizer requirement for brinjal was optimized using Inductive cum Targeted yield model. The basic parameters (nutrient requirement (NR), contribution of nutrients from soil (Cs), fertilisers (Cf), and farmyard manure (Cfym)) were computed from the field experimental data. Making use of the basic parameters Fertiliser Prescription Equations (FPEs) were developed under the Integrated Plant Nutrition System (IPNS) and nomograms were formulated for the desired yield target of brinjal for a range of soil test values. The quantity of nutrients that could be contributed by FYM @ 12.5 t ha⁻¹ when applied along with the NPK fertilisers as per soil test and desired yield target was evaluated as 42, 24, and 30 kg of N, P₂O₅ and K₂O.