Effect of Integrated Nutrient Management on Chickpea Productivity and Soil Fertility Status under Rice – Chickpea Cropping System at Farmers Field of Balaghat District of Madhya Pradesh, India

Chickpea (Cicer aeritinum) is one of most important pulse crop which is grown in rabi season. The availability of nutrients in the soil for plant utilization is known to be affected not only by the inherent soil characteristics but also by the use of fertilizers and management practices followed for crop production. Therefore, a study on the effect of integrated application of inorganic fertilizers and organic manure (vermicompost) on rice productivity at farmer field was carried out at Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. In between the technology intervention, human resource development components were also included to improve the farmers understanding and skills about the demonstrated technology on nutrient management aspects. The demonstrations were conducted at different farmers' field at villages viz. Koppe, Chillod and Lendejhari on chickpea (variety JG 63) during rabi season 2018-19 and 2019-20 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research funded Project on Farmer FIRST, College of Agriculture, Balaghat (M.P.). Based on the basic soil properties of farmer’s field, the present experiment included four treatments viz., T1 = Farmer Practice (as Control), T2 = 100% NPK, T3 = 100% NPK + Zn, T4 = 75% NPK+ 5t/ha FYM ha and T5 = 75% NPK + 5t FYM ha-1+ Biofertilizers (BGA/Rhizobium& PSB). Results indicated that the highest average yield of chickpea was achieved in 75% NPK + 5t FYM ha-1+ Biofertilizers treatment, whereas, lowest yield was recorded in farmer’s practice. The highest increase in yield (50.7%) was observed with 75% NPK + 5t FYM ha-1+ Biofertilizers, followed by 75% NPK + 5t FYM ha-1 treatments (47.5%) over farmer’s practice.