Influence of vermicompost as the source of nitrogen in various combinations with chemical fertiliser on winter wheat productivity

Abstract

There is rarely any study that deals with the application of vermicompost in combination with chemical fertiliser to study the growth and yield variables of wheat crop in the typical agro-climatic conditions of saline sandy agricultural land of tropical semi-arid climatic condition with vast fluctuations of temperature between summer and winter seasons. Hence, the current study has been planned with a broader objective of utilising the organic resources by preparing vermicompost and applying it as the partial substitute of chemical fertiliser to cultivate wheat in an eco-friendly manner in saline sandy agricultural land of the tropical semi-arid zone. For achieving the intended goal, an experiment was conducted in the field of ‘Soil-Water-Plant Laboratory', Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Ropar, Punjab, India during the winter season (rabi) of 2018-19. In this experiment, Randomized Block Design (RBD) was followed, and four treatments were used, including T1: 100% RD using chemical fertilisers, T2: 50% RD using chemical fertilisers + 50% of nitrogen through vermicompost, T3:75% RD using chemical fertilisers + 25% of nitrogen through vermicompost and T4: control (without any additional nutrients). Each treatment was replicated nine times. Plot size was 4m x 6m, and row to row spacing was 0.2 m. Following statistical analysis, it was found that treatment T2 (50% RD using chemical fertilisers + 50% of nitrogen through vermicompost) showed the best results, which were reflected in different parameters such as number of effective tillers per plant, ear length, number of grains per ear, and test weight, grain yield and straw yield of the wheat crop in comparison to other treatments. In this case, an almost equal amount of nitrogen supply from both organic and inorganic sources is responsible for getting the best results.