Long‐term effects of organic manure and manufactured fertilizer additions on soil quality and sustainable productivity of finger millet under a finger millet–groundnut cropping system in southern India

Abstract

AbstractIn a 20‐yr‐old long‐term experiment, the impact of continuous application of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers on soil quality and the sustainability of finger millet production was conducted on two cropping systems: finger millet and finger millet–groundnut on an Alfisol of semi‐arid southern India. The study was conducted from 1992 to 2011 at the All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture, UAS, Bangalore, using a randomized block design. The treatments comprised of T1: control [no fertilizer and no farmyard manure (FYM) applied], T2: FYM 10 t/ha, T3: FYM 10 t/ha + 50% of recommended NPK (50:50:25 kg/ha), T4: FYM 10 t/ha + 100% of recommended NPK and T5: 100% recommended NPK. Comparison of long‐term yield data between treatments was used to calculate a ‘sustainability yield index’ (SYI), which was greatest for T4 (FYM 10 t/ha + 100% of recommended NPK), in both rotational (0.68) and monocropping (0.63) situations. Soil quality indices were determined using principal component analysis linear scoring functions. The key indicators which contributed to the soil quality index (SQI) under rotation were organic C; potentially available N; extractable P, K and S; exchangeable Ca and Mg; dehydrogenase activity and microbial biomass C and N. The largest SQI (7.29) was observed in T4 (FYM 10 t/ha + 100% NPK), and the smallest (3.70) SQI was for the control. Application of 10 t/ha FYM together with NPK (50:50:25 kg/ha) sustained a mean yield of 3884 kg/ha.