Effect of Different Crop Establishment Methods and Organic Sources of Nutrients on Finger Millet in South Eastern Ghat Zone of Odisha, India

Abstract

Organic agriculture appears to be a way to maintain desired crop production in future. In terms of nutrients, organic farming practices vary with the availability of local resources of manures and its quantity needs to be identified to meet the nutritional needs of finger millet. So, a field experiment was conducted at Regional Research and Technology Transfer Sub-Station (OUAT), Malkangiri, Odisha during rainy season of 2019-2021 to find out the effect of organic nutrient sources on yield and economics of finger millet under different establishment methods. Three crop establishment methods (line sowing, transplanting and broadcasting) and six different organic sources of nutrients (FYM @ 5 t ha-1, VC @ 2 t ha-1, FYM @ 2.5 t ha-1 + VC @ 1 t ha-1, Compost prepared by Waste decomposer @ 5 t ha-1, FYM @ 5 t ha-1 + Bio NPK @ 5 kg ha-1 and Gliricidia leaf manure @ 2.5 t ha-1) were laid out in split-plot design with three replications. The recorded data revealed that significantly highest number of tillers (2.55 hill-1), fingers (5.52 ear head-1), finger length (6.53 cm) along with highest yield (1259 kg ha-1), net return (Rs. 14709 ha-1) and B: C ratio (1.48) were obtained with transplanted condition. Growth and yield attributes of finger millet was significantly varied by application of different organic sources of nutrients and it was observed that application of FYM @ 2.5 t ha-1 + VC @ 1 t ha-1 recorded highest number of tillers (2.52 hill-1), fingers (5.76 ear head-1), finger length (6.72 cm) and grain yield (1327 kg ha-1) followed by application of FYM @ 5 t ha-1 + Bio NPK @ 5 kg ha-1and both were statistically at par in respect to all above parameters. But, highest net return (Rs. 18923 ha-1) and B: C ratio (1.65) was obtained with the application of FYM @ 5 t ha-1 + Bio NPK @ 5 kg ha-1. So, transplanting of finger millet with the application of FYM @ 5 t ha-1 + Bio NPK @ 5 kg ha-1 should be recommended for the studied region as organic nutrient management.