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SUSTAINABLE CASSAVA PRODUCTION AND SOIL PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH SOIL-BASED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT: EXPERIENCE FROM A LONG TERM FERTILIZER EXPERIMENT AND FIELD VALIDATION TRIAL IN AN ULTISOL OF KERALA, INDIA

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Title SUSTAINABLE CASSAVA PRODUCTION AND SOIL PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH SOIL-BASED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT: EXPERIENCE FROM A LONG TERM FERTILIZER EXPERIMENT AND FIELD VALIDATION TRIAL IN AN ULTISOL OF KERALA, INDIA
Not Available
 
Creator K. Susan John1, C.S. Ravindran2, S.K. Naskar3, G. Suja4, K. Prathapan5 and James George6
 
Subject Root yield, root quality, soil test-based fertilizer recommendation, B:C ratio, secondary and micronutrients
 
Description Not Available
to increase the fertilizer use and economic efficiency. Soil nutrient availability is usually
determined through soil testing, which provides information on the fertilizer requirement of a crop
for that nutrient to achieve the crop production goal in addition to maintaining environmental
quality.
Cassava is a crop grown by resource-poor farmers with low inputs and the traditional
practice of continuous application of manures and fertilizers, which has resulted in a considerable
build-up of nutrients like P without significant increases in yield and quality of roots. An effort was
therefore made to study the effect of application of manures and fertilizers based on the actual soil
nutrient status under the long-term fertilizer experiment underway at ICAR-CTCRI since 1977. In
the third phase of this long-term experiment, which was initiated in 2004, a soil test-based fertilizer
recommendation (STBF) treatment was included. In this treatment, manure and fertilizer
applications varied yearly as their requirements were based on the status of organic carbon and
available N, P and K to determine the requirement of N, P and K fertilizers and FYM (farmyard
manure). The recommendation of FYM and NPK were evolved based on the above criteria, and in
this paper the effect of this treatment for six consecutive years on root yield, root quality parameters,
such as starch, cyanogenic glucosides and total dry matter production, as well as soil nutrient status,
this is pH, organic carbon, available N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn and total plant uptake for
the above nutrients were studied by following standard analytical procedures.
The long-term fertilizer experiment was conducted in a typic kandiustult (laterite) with a
pH of 4.5-5, medium in organic carbon, while available N and K were low and P was high. For this
paper, the STBF treatment was compared with the current standard recommendation known as the
Package of Practices (POP), in which NPK was applied at the rate of 100:50:100 kg N, P2O5 and
K2O/ha, along with FYM at 12.5 t/ha. The STBF treatment varied from year to year as it was based
on soil test data for each of the six years (2005-2010), but on average it consisted of the application
of FYM at 8.3 t/ha and NPK at 89:0:67 kg/ha.
The scientific information generated on the superiority of STBF over POP was validated in
farmers’ fields in two districts of Kerala at 13 locations involving 17 farmers with a mean level of
NPK of 80:7:70 kg/ha and FYM at 7 t/ha. The root yield data clearly indicated that, STBF was as
effective in increasing yields as POP during all years except in 2007. Due to the lower levels of
fertilizers and manures used, the benefit cost ratio was found higher for STBF compared to other
treatments. In the case of quality attributes and total plant nutrient uptake, no significant difference
was seen, but the quality traits, such as cyanogenic glucosides and starch were found improved by
1 Principal Scientist, Division of Crop Production, ICAR-CTCRI, susanctcri@gmail.com 2 Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Crop Production, ICAR-CTCRI, csrctcri@yahoo.com 3 Director, ICAR-CTCRI, sknaskar@hotmail.com 4 Principal Scientist, Division of Crop Production, ICAR-CTCRI, sujagin@yahoo.com 5 Director, State Horticulture Mission, Kerala, mdshmkerala@yahoo.co.in 6 Project Coordinator, AICRP on Tuber Crops, ICAR, jgkarott@gmail.com
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the use of STBF. The nutrient status of the soil also followed the same trend with organic carbon and
available P registering a significantly lower level without a significant reduction in root yield,
suggesting the need to apply fertilizers and manures based on soil nutrient availability.
Hence, the present study will be of immense application from the farmers’ point of view to
sustain yield, to maintain quality of the produce, to improve the nutrient use efficiency, to increase
the farmers’ income and to safeguard the environmental quality. Since fertilizer is one of the
principle means to achieve global food security, the underlying principles of fertilizer management
to use it efficiently and responsibly need to be practiced in all crops and cropping systems to
optimize crop productivity as well as to maintain environmental quality
Not Available
 
Date 2021-08-06T04:02:59Z
2021-08-06T04:02:59Z
2015-01-01
 
Type Article
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/53324
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher CIAT, Columbia