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Higher yield, profit and soil quality from organic farming of elephant foot yam

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Title Higher yield, profit and soil quality from organic farming of elephant foot yam
Not Available
 
Creator Suja, Sundaresan, Kuzhivilayil John, Sreekumar, Raj Misra
 
Subject Amorphophallus paeoniifolius . Organic . Conventional . Corm yield . Dry matter . Starch . Oxalate . Soil physico-chemical properties . Income
 
Description Not Available
Alternative agricultural systems, like organic farming,
that are less chemical intensive, less exploitative and
environment friendly are gaining popularity. Elephant foot
yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson) is
an important starchy tuberous vegetable with high nutritive
and medicinal values. Since information on the organic
farming of tuberous vegetables is scanty, field experiments
were conducted in this crop at the Central Tuber Crops
Research Institute, India, over a 5-year period. The impact of
organic, conventional, traditional and biofertilizer production
systems on growth, yield, quality, soil physico-chemical
properties and economics were evaluated in elephant foot
yam. Our results show that organic farming favoured canopy
growth, corm biomass and lowered collar rot disease. Dry
matter and starch contents of organic corms were significantly
higher than those of conventional corms by 7% and
13%, respectively. Organic corms had 12% higher crude
protein and 21% significantly lower oxalate contents. The
content of K, Ca and Mg in corms were slightly higher, by
3–7% under organic farming. After 5 years of farming, the
organic plots showed significantly higher pH, by 0.77 unit,
and higher organic C by 19%. The exchangeable Mg,
available Cu, Mn and Fe contents were also significantly
higher. Organic management lowered the bulk density by
2.3%, improved the water-holding capacity by 28.4% and
the porosity of soil by 16.5%. In short, organic farming
proved superior and produced 20% higher yield (57.097 t
ha−1) over conventional practice (47.609 tha−1). The net
profit was 28% higher and an additional income of Indian
Rs. 47,716 ha−1 was obtained. Thus organic farming was
found to be an eco-friendly management strategy in elephant
foot yam for sustainable yield of quality tubers and higher
profit besides maintaining soil health. Technologies for
organic production involving farmyard manure incubated
with bioinoculants, green manuring, neem cake, biofertilizers
and ash were also standardized.
Not Available
 
Date 2021-08-04T06:24:03Z
2021-08-04T06:24:03Z
2011-10-14
 
Type Article
 
Identifier http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/52860
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher INRA and Springer-Verlag, France