Soil test crop response based site specific integrated nutrient management in mungbean

Abstract

Imbalanced and excessive use of chemical fertilizers has brought many soil fertility problems. Soil test crop response (STCR) approach aims to estimate precise fertilizer requirement for target yield under varying soil test values and gaining prominence for site-specific nutrient management. A field experiment to estimate STCR based fertilizer requirement for targeted yield of mungbean was conducted during 2019–2020 at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. Three fertility gradient plots of varying soil fertility levels were created by applying graded dose of N, P2O5 and K2O and growing wheat as an exhaust crop. Each of three soil fertility gradient plot was divided into 24 subplots (21 plots with different combinations of varying levels of N, P2O5, K2O and FYM, remaining 3 plots as controls) and mungbean was grown as main crop. Results revealed the requirement of 6.72, 0.883, and 3.52 kg of N, P and K, respectively for producing one quintal of mungbean grain. Soil, FYM, fertilizer and fertilizer along with FYM contributed 28.06%, 5.94%, 113.22%, and 135.01% for N; 24.73%, 3.18%, 15.1%, and 18.85% for P; 13.19%, 7.21%, 39.52%, and 55.84% for K, respectively. This information is used to develop STCR based fertilizer prescription equations along with ready reckoners of fertilizer doses at different soil fertility levels and yield targets of mungbean for providing balanced fertilization. The maximum response of mungbean in terms of grain and protein yield was obtained with the application of 20:50:30 kg ha−1 N: P2O5: K2O, respectively.