STCR based nutrient management in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) for higher productivity and profitability

Abstract

Farmer' Participatory On Farm Trials (FP-OFT) were conducted at 10 different locations in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh during rabi 2016-17 in medium black soils to study the influence of soil test crop response (STCR) approach vis-a-vis farmers' practice on productivity and economics of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Result revealed that targeted seed yield of chickpea (16 q/ha) was achieved by adoption of STCR approach. The mean grain and stover yields of chickpea under STCR were increased by 37.1% and 41.2%, respectively over the farmers' practice (FP). The plant height, number of root nodules, pods/plant and test weight of seed were also increased by 11.6, 29.3, 11.6 and 26.0% respectively, over the FP. There was much larger negative balance in available nitrogen and available potassium status under farmers' practice compared to STCR based nutrient management approach. The gross return, net returns and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) under the STCR approach were between ` 70200-77450/ha, ` 48019-55176/ ha and 2.16-2.48 which were higher as compared to farmers' practice across the different locations. STCR based nutrient management approach should be adopted by the farmers for getting higher crop productivity and profitability and improving soil fertility status.

Keywords

• Farmer participatory
• Net return
• On-farm testing
• Soil Test Crop Response