R. M. PANKHANIYA*, B. B. TANDEL, S. K. PARMAR AND V. P. USADADIYA
Department of Agronomy
N.M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat), India
*(e-mail : rameshpankhnia@gmail.com)
(Received : 2 March 2024: Accepted : 29 March 2024)
SUMMARY
The experiment was conducted on fodder cowpea seed production during the summer seasons of 2020 to 2022 at Department of Agronomy, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat). The treatment consists of three levels of organics (Control, FYM 2.0 t/ha and Bio compost 2.0 t/ha) and three levels of fertilizer viz., 50 % RDF, 75 % RDF and 100 % RDF (RDF 20-40-00, N-P2O5-K2O kg/ha) with the use of bio fertilizer Rhizobium + PSB as seed treatment @10 ml/ kg seed as a common application in Randomized Block Design with factorial concept. The result of three-year experimentation revealed that application of Bio compost 2.0 t/ha gave significantly superior plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed yield and fodder yield except number of pods per plant and fodder yield which were remained at par with application of FYM 2.0 t/ha. In case of fertilizer levels application of 100 % RDF resulted significantly higher plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pods, seed yield and fodder yield however, which were at par with treatment F2 (75% RDF) except number of pods per plant. The interaction between organic and fertilizer levels was found significant in pooled data. The treatment combination O2F2 (Bio compost 2.0 t/ha and 75 % RDF) recorded significantly higher plant height, number of pods par plant, number of seeds per pod, seed and fodder yields. Gross return, net return and B:C ratio were found highest under treatment combination O2F2. Based on the results of three years’ experimentation on seed production of fodder cowpea, it can be concluded that application of Bio compost 2.0 t/ha along with 75 % RDF produced higher seed and fodder yield with maximum net return.
Key words: Bio compost, FYM, fodder cowpea, Rhizobium and PSB