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

Abstract:

Jeevamrutha is a low cost microbial culture, made from Native cow’s urine, dung, jaggery and horse gram which is used in organic agriculture to promote immense biological activity in soil and meets the nutritional requirement of crops. Laboratory studies and field experiment were conducted during Rabi season of 2020-21 at Research Farm, Department of Soil Science and Agriculture chemistry, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani to know the nutrient content and microbial composition of jeevamrutha prepared from different animal breeds and its effect on performance of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L). The pH of jeevamrutha prepared from excreta of Indian cow, buffalo and hybrid cow decreased progressively with time. 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 microbial studies reveled that higher bacterial and actinomycetes count was noted in jeevamrutha prepared from excreta of Indian cow followed by buffalo and hybrid cow and it increased from its initial values in all the culture. But the fungal count was the highest in jeevamrutha prepared from excreta of hybrid cow followed by Indian cow and buffalo. 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 100% RDF + jeevamrutha soil and foliar application (107, 1665 and 2642 Kg ha-1) over control. Combination of organic formulation (jeevamrutha) and balanced chemical fertilizers, enhances the productivity of chickpea.