Effect of Different Natural Farming Treatments on Growth, Yield and Quality of Pigeon Pea in Inter-cropping System in Western U.P.

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted at the Crop Research Centre, Chiraodi farm of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (U.P.) in order to study the effect of different natural farming treatments on growth, yield and quality of pigeon pea in inter-cropping system in western U.P. during the year 2018. The experiment was laid out in Randomized complete block design with 16 treatments comprising of different combinations of natural farming components (Beejamrutha, Jeevamrutha, Mulching and Green manure) which were replicated thrice. The results revealed that application of Beejamrutha + Jeevamrutha + Mulching + Green manure recorded significantly higher growth parameters viz., higher plant height (165.70 cm), No. of primary branches per plant (25.81), no. of secondary branches per plant (30.81) and leaf area index (2.40) and yield attributing characters namely number of pods/plant (468.60), number of grains/pod (6.62), Pod weight per plant (277.68) and 100 seed weight (12.88) as compared to other   treatment combinations. Application of Beejamrutha + Jeevamrutha + Mulching + Green manure recorded significantly higher grain yield (2286 kg ha-1) as compared to rest of the treatments. However, treatments with Beejamrutha + Mulching + Green manure and Jeevamrutha Jeevamrutha + Mulching + Green manure recorded similar growth, yield parameters and yield.