PJB-2018-441
PRODUCTIVITY, QUALITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND PROFITABILITY OF FORAGE SOYBEAN UNDER CONVENTIONAL AND ORGANIC MANURE REGIMES
M.A. IQBAL
Abstract
Organic manures are more preferred than chemical fertilizers for their minimal contamination of soil, water and environmental resources but the determination of right source of organic manures continues to remain an unexplored aspect. A multi-year field trial was carried out to determine the response of forage soybean to three solo organic manures including poultry litter (PL), bovine’s farm yard slurry (BFYS) and sewage sludge (SS) and their six binary combinations (75%PL+75%BFYS, 75%PL+75%SS, 75%PL+50%IF, 75%BFYS+75%SS, 75%BFYS+50%IF, 40%PL+40%BFYS+40%SS). Sole application of chemical fertilizers (IF) was used for comparison. Agronomic yield attributes and nutritional quality along with the sustainability and economic performance were taken as response variables. Organic manures supplemented with chemical fertilizers remained superior to their sole application, especially 75%BFYS+50%IF was outstanding (p≤0.05) in yielding the highest green forage yield (23.9, 26.9 and 25.9 t ha–1 in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively) with improved nutritional quality (highest crude protein, ether extractable fat and total ash while lowest crude fiber content). The same integrated fertilization also recorded higher sustainability as per sustainable forage yield index along with the highest net income and the benefit-cost ratio. PL and SS applied in conjunction with 50%IF performed better than sole or binary application of organic manures. In conclusion, 75%BFYS+50%IF may produce comparable yields and nutritional quality of soybean along with reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers, though not completely.
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