Fertilizer requirement of rice-wheat and maize-wheat rotations on coarse-textured soils amended with farmyard manure

Abstract

Field experiments with rice-wheat rotation were conducted during five consecutive years on a coarse-textured low organic matter soil. By amending the soil with 12t FYM ha⁻¹, the yield of wetland rice in the absence of fertilizers was increased by 32 per cent. Application of 80 kg N ha⁻¹ as urea could increase the grain yield of rice equivalent to 120 kg N ha⁻¹ on the unamended soil. Although the soil under test was low in Olsen's P, rice did not respond to the application of phosphorus on both amended and unamended soils. For producing equivalent grain yield, fertilizer requirement of maize grown on soils amended with 6 and 12 t FYM ha⁻¹ could be reduced, respectively to 50 and 25 per cent of the dose recommended for unamended soil (120 kg N + 26.2 kg P + 25 kg K ha⁻¹). Grain yield of wheat grown after rice on soils amended with FYM was significantly higher than that obtained on unamended soil. In contrast, grain yield of wheat which followed maize did not differ significantly on amended or unamended soils.