The use of organic residues in increasing crop production in a wheat—mungbean—T. Aman cropping system on red-brown terrace soils

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted to study the utilization of crop residues of a crop sequence for the maintenance of and increase in soil productivity on red-brown terrace soils (series chiatta) on the Central Farm of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur.

Experiments with organic recycling of wheat, mungbean and T Aman were carried out during 1991–92 and 1992–93 cropping seasons. The experiments were laid out in a randomized block design with four replicate and five treatments (control, compost, compost + half NPK, full NPK, and full NPK + compost). Full NPK doses were N₁₀₀P₅₀K₅₀, N₅₀P₅₀K₅₀ and N₁₂₀P₈₀K₆₀ for wheat, mungbean and T. Aman, respectively. Decomposed straw was applied at the rate of 20 t/ha for wheat, 10 t/ha for mungbean and 24 t/ha for rice.

It was observed that wheat (var. Kanchon) gave the highest grain yield (3.20 t/h and 3.60 t/ha) with the N₁₀₀P₅₀K₅₀ + compost treatment, an increase of 78% over control. Mungbean (var. Kanti) gave the highest grain yields (1.10 t/ha and 1.15 t/ha) with the N₅₀P₅₀K₅₀ + compost treatment, with percentage grain increases of 83 and 87%. Highest grain yields (5.50 t/ha and 5.70 t/ha) of rice (var. BR-11) were obtained with the N₁₂₀P₈₀K₆₀ + compost treatment and the percentage increases over control of 83% and 85% for two consecutive years (1991–92 and 1992–93). Full NPK + compost treatment produced better results for all growth characters and grain yields than all other treatments.