Brinder Singh

Nonexchangeable Potassium Displacement in Relation to Potassium Availability to Rainfed Maize under Nitrogen Fertilization

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of nitrogen (N) application, through an easily available and cheap source urea, on potassium (K) displacement and its availability in K-deficient maize-growing soils of rainfed subtropics. The greatest amount of K was displaced (11.22 kg ha−1) by N application at the rate of 80 kg N ha−1 (treatment T4). Amount of N fixed to displace K (11.10 kg ha−1) was also greatest in the same treatment. Displaced K was positively related to nonexchangeable potassium (NEK) release. Nitrogen application through urea at 80 kg ha−1 helped not only in meeting N requirement of maize crop in these N-deficient soils but can also satisfy the K requirements (as these soils are low in K) of these soils. Potassium displacement also increased the production efficiency of the maize crop by promoting its relative production efficiency index (RPEI) from suitability class V to class III.

Efficient Nutrient Management Practices for Sustainable Crop Productivity and Soil Fertility Maintenance Based on Permanent Manorial Experiments in Different Soil and Agro-Climatic Conditions

© 2012 Maruthi Sankar et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Efficient Nutrient Management Practices for Sustainable Crop Productivity and Soil Fertility Maintenance Based on Permanent Manorial Experiments in Different Soil and Agro-Climatic Conditions

Efficacy of Fungi Toxicants and Bio Control Agents against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri

India grows a variety of pulse crops under a wide range of agro climatic conditions and it is the most important pulse crop recorded production of 5.77 million tonnes/year. (Masood Ali and Shiv Kumar 2005). Generally chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is grown under rainfed situation, but it responds to variable irrigation (Chundawal et al., 1976). Pulses are an important source of protein in vegetarian diets being leguminous crops, processing root nodules, they fix atmospheric nitrogen. They are thus not dependent on industrially fixed nitrogen, a process requiring energy but upto 30kg N/ha to the soil and Bio control agents (Trichoderma viride, Pseudomonas fluorescens) and various fungitoxicants were tested for their efficacy in controlling the Fusarium wilt of chickpea caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri in vitro and in vivo. In vivo conditions soil inoculated with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri was conducted to compare the efficacy of different treatments viz. seed treatment with bio-control agents and fungitoxicants in the management of chickpea wilt. All the treatment significantly reduced the wilt incidence. Bavistin, Thiram and Trichoderma viride were the most effective and reduced the wilt incidence as compared to inoculated control respectively whereas neem leaf and neem bark was the least effective over inoculated control. Seed treatment with Pseudomonas fluorescens and Trichoderma viride effectively enhancing the growth of chickpea viz. Shoot length, root length, shoot weight and root weight as compared to control. In vitro condition all the treatments used in vivo conditions were evaluated at different concentrations for their efficacy is significantly inhibited the radial growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri. All the treatments were effective and significantly reduced the radial growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri. K e y w o r d s