Evaluation of microbial culture (jeevamrutha) preparation and its effect along with organic and inorganic nutrient sources on performance of chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.)

Evaluation of microbial culture (jeevamrutha) preparation and its effect along with organic and inorganic nutrient sources on performance of chickpea (Cicer arientinum L.)

Nikita Pardeshi , Swati Zade^* , Anil Dhamak

Corresponding Author Email: spzade@yahoo.co.in

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.53709/ CHE.2021.v02i04.034

Abstract

Keywords

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Increasing need for food production and food security due to ever rising population of India has forced the green revolution to use large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in crop [1-3]. Across the larger part of the globe excess and unsustainable use of inorganic fertilizers endangers soil health as well as also harmful to the environment and human beings. Although, chemical fertilizers are playing a critical role to meet the nutrient requirement of the crop, persistent nutrient depletion is posing a bigger danger to sustainable agriculture. As a result, it is an urgent need to reduce the usages of chemical fertilizers by substituting with organics [4-6]. Using a combination of organic and balanced chemical fertilizers, enhances the physico-chemical properties of the soil and improves efficiency of applied fertilizers resulted in higher productivity and quality of the crops.

Jeevamrutha is a low cost microbial culture, prepared especially from dung and urine of Indian cow is generally advocated for use in organic culture to promotes immense biological activity in soil and meets the nutritional requirement of crops. The philosophy behind the application of jeevamrutha as a bio-resource is supplementation of essential plant nutrients and boosting soil health in economic and eco-friendly manner [7-10]. These organic products are biodegradable, more sustainable, non-polluting, non-toxic and not hazardous to humans, animal and birds. Thus, integration of organic manure and formulations with chemical fertilizers look like an alternative supply for plant nutrition. Although multiple advantage with organic liquid formulations they have not been exploited extensively in crop production and more so in chickpea crop.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Laboratory studies

Laboratory study was conducted at Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani, India. Three sets of jeevamrutha are made from the dung and urine of Indian cows, buffaloes, and hybrid cows, respectively were prepared by mixing 10 kg dung with 10 liters urine, add 2 kg local jaggery, 2 kg horse gram flour and handful of bund soil and volume made up to 200 liters. The mixtures were incubated in the shade for 5 days covered with wet gunny bag and content was stirred clockwise thrice a day with a wooden stick for 10-15 minutes each time.

Field studies

A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2020-21 in factorial randomized block design (FRBD) with twelve treatments and three replications to evaluate the effect of jeevamrutha along with organic and inorganic nutrient sources on productivity of chickpea at the Research Farm of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani. Experimental treatments consist of two factors in which one factor consist of four levels of chemical fertilizer and organic manures (F₀– Unfertilized control F₁– 100% RDF F₂– RDN through FYM F₃ –RDN through vermicompost) and another factor consist of three levels of jeevamrutha (J₀– Contol, J₁– Jeevamrutha soil application and J2- Jeevamrutha soil+ foliar application). The initial soil pH was 8.11, EC- 0.495 dSm-1, Organic Carbon- 3.99 g kg-1, Calcium Carbonate – 6.26%, available nitrogen- 168.35 kg ha-1, phosphorus- 11.48 kg ha-1, potassium- 650.38 kg ha-1, Sulphur-17.50 mg kg-1. The initial micronutrient status was DTPA Copper-2.23, Mangnease-5.91, Zinc-0.38 and Ferrous-2.26 mg kg-1. The soil was clay in texture, slightly alkaline in reaction, low in nitrogen, and medium in phosphorus, very high in potassium, sufficient in Sulphur, copper, manganese and deficient in zinc and iron.

The Jeevamrutha @ 500 L/ha was applied through soil at 30 DAS and foliar spray of Jeevamrutha @ 3% at 45 and 60 DAS of chickpea.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

Chemical composition of Jeevamruthas

The pH of jeevamrutha prepared from excreta of Indian cow, buffalo and hybrid cow decreased progressively with time from 7.72, 7.67 and 7.48 at the start to 3.87, 3.68 and 3.31, respectively after 5 days of incubation (Table 1.) and this is attributed to the increased activity of acid producing microorganism. The organic carbon content was highest in jeevamrutha prepared from dung and urine of Indian cow followed by that of buffalo and hybrid cow.

The nutrient content in Jeevamruthas indicated that the jeevamrutha solution prepared from dung and urine of Indian cow, buffalo and hybrid cow contained 0.07, 0.01 and 0.05% nitrogen, 0.008, 0.005 and 0.007% phosphorus and 0.17, 0.14 and 0.13% potassium respectively at the start and increased to 0.09, 0.06 and 0.07% nitrogen, 0.009, 0.006 and 0.008% phosphorus and 0.19, 0.15 and 0.14% potassium respectively after 5 days of incubation. The nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients contents were relatively higher in jeevamrutha prepared from dung and urine of Indian cow followed by that of buffalo and hybrid cow. These findings are in agreement with [11].

Microbial population of jeevamruthas

The microbial population (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes) was less initially in all the jeevamrutha solutions and it increased with time as the incubation progressed. The bacterial and actinomycetes count was the highest in jeevamrutha prepared from excreta of Indian cow followed by buffalo and hybrid cow. But the fungal count was the highest in jeevamrutha prepared from excreta of hybrid cow followed by Indian cow and buffalo. Similar findings were also reported by [12-14].

Effect on chickpea productivity

The data on number of seed, seed and dry matter yield of chickpea (Kg/ha) as influenced by the chemical fertilizer, organic manure and jeevamrutha treatments are presented in Table 3. The result revealed that among chemical fertilizer and organic manures, 100% RDF recorded significantly highest number of pods per plant grain and dry matter yield of chickpea (94, 1503 and 2507 Kg/ha) followed by RDN through vermicompost (86, 1456 and 2474 kg/ha) and lowest in control. Sujana et al (2019) also recorded significantly higher yield of chilli with RDF. In case of different levels of jeevamrutha application maximum number of pod, seed and dry matter yield (93, 1457 and 2449 Kg/ha) recorded in treatment receiving jeevamrutha soil and foliar application over rest of treatments.

Sutar et al. (2018) revealed that liquid organic formulation can successfully and efficiently be employed to get higher grain yield in cowpea. Beneficial effects of jeevamrut was attributed to higher microbial load and growth hormones which may have increased the soil biomass which sustain the availability and uptake of applied and native soil nutrients which ultimately resulted in better crop growth and yield as earlier reported by [15-18]

The interaction effect of chemical fertilizer, organic manure and jeevamrutha on number of pods, grain and dry matter yield of chickpea was found significantly highest in the treatment F₁J₂ i.e 100% RDF + jeevamrutha soil and foliar application (107, 1665 and 2642 kg/ha) over control but treatment F₃J₂ i.e RDN through vermicompost + jeevamrutha soil and foliar application was found at par with F1J2 treatment. This could be due to adequate supply of required nutrient through chemical fertilizer during early stage of plant growth and also due to overall improvement in soil physico-chemical and biological properties as a result of combined application of liquid organic formulation and inorganic fertilizer. The better nutrient availability and nutrient uptake improved the growth and yield of crop. These results are in agreement with the findings of [19-26]. Combination of organic formulation (jeevamrutha) and balanced chemical fertilizers, enhances the productivity of chickpea.

Conclusion

Application of 100% RDF + Jeevamrutha soil and foliar application significantly enhanced growth, yield and quality parameters of chickpea. The integrated use of organic manures, organic liquid formulations and inorganic nutrient sources significantly increase the availability of nutrients and improves soil health.

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