Effect of different organic manures and bio-enhancers on growth and yield of greengram (Vigna radiata L.) under organic farming

Introduction

Greengram (Vigna radiata L.) is one of the most ancient and extensively grown leguminous crops of India. It is a native of India and Central Asia and commonly known as mung bean. It is the third important pulse crop after chickpea and pigeon pea and cultivated throughout India. Mung bean is also known as greengram, golden gram, moong. Greengram is a self-pollinated pulse crop. The average production of greengram is 721 kg/ha, and there are around 7.3 million hectares planted worldwide. In India during 2022-23, about 15.57 lakh ha area was covered under greengram with 3.74 MT production. The states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat are the major producers of greengram in India (Anon., 2023). Greengram output accounts for about 10 to 12% of total pulses production in the country. In Gujarat, it is cultivated in 1.54 lakh hectare with an annual production of 1.17 lakh metric tonne having average productivity of 758 kg/ha (Anon., 2022). Greengram is cultivated in both kharif and summer season in North India where, irrigation water is available whereas in South India in the mild winter season. Greengram seed is high in copper, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and important vitamins, and contains 20-25% protein, 1.3% fat, 15.4% fibre and 3.7% ash (FAO, 2019). Its seeds are high in lysine (4600 mg/g N) and tryptophan (60 mg/g N) and may be consumed as whole grain or as 'dal' in variety of purposes. Organic manures provide a good substrate for the growth of micro-organisms and maintain a favourable nutritional balance and soil physical properties. It is recognized that proper use of organic matter and bio-enhancers play a key role in increasing the productivity of soil. The use of organics in crop production is nothing new to our agriculture and many organics like farmyard manure, compost, vermicompost, poultry manure, ghanjivamrit, panchagavya, cow urine, jivamrit, amritpani etc. are used as a substitute for chemical fertilizers to supply plant nutrients in traditional farming which also helps to sustain soil organic carbon and maintain favourable soil condition for crop growth.

Organic manures contain both macro and micro nutrients and enhance soil fertility, and lead to increasing availability of plant nutrients through mineralization (Khan et al., 2009, Shweta et al., 2021) [10,16] . In recent years fermented, liquid organic fertilizers, bio enhancers and effective microorganisms (EM) as foliar fertilizers have been introduced to modern agriculture to produce food with good quality and safety. The use of organic manures and bio-enhancers as a low-cost supplement instead of artificial fertilizers may help decreasing the cost of production (Aslam et al., 2010) [3] . ). The present experiment comprised of twelve treatments and three replications. The treatments were comprised of T1: FYM @ 5 t/ha, T2: Vermicompost @ 1 t/ha, T3: Ghanjivamrut @ 1 t/ha, T4: FYM @ 5t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha, T5: FYM @ 5t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray, T6: FYM @ 5t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha, T7: Vermicompost @ 1t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha, T8: Vermicompost @ 1t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray, T9: Vermicompost @ 1t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha, T10: Ghanjivamrut @ 1t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha, T11: Ghanjivamrut @ 1t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray, T12: Ghanjivamrut @ 1t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha. Panchgavya @ 4% spray at branching and flowering stage. Jivamrut and Amritpani were applied at the time of sowing and 30 DAS as soil application. The data were statistically analyzed for various characters as described by Panse and Sukhatme (1967) [13] .

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Effect on growth attributes

The data exhibited in Table 1 showed that the plant population per meter row length and plant height at 30 DAS and at harvest were not influenced significantly by the application of different organic manures and bio-enhancers on greengram under organic farming. Which means that the plant population and plant height in all the organic manures and bio-enhancers treated plots were found uniform which indicates that there is no any adverse effect of different organic sources of nutrients on greengram plant. The data presented in Table 2 indicated that among the different organic manures and bio-enhancers were found not significantly influenced fresh weight of root nodules/plant and number of branches/plant. While in case of number of root nodules/plant (24.56) was significantly influenced by application of (T4) FYM @ 5 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha and it was at par with (T6) FYM @ 5 t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha (23.11), (T5) FYM @ 5 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray (22.35), (T1) FYM @ 5 t/ha (22.33) and (T7) Vermicompost @ 1 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha (22. 16). This might be due to application of FYM along with jivamrut provided the micronutrients like molybdenum along with all other essential nnutrients which might have acted as co-enzyme for formation of root nodules and bio-enhancers contains favorable growth hormones and microorganism which plays an important role in root development and proliferation resulting in better nodule formation and nitrogen fixation by supplying assimilates to the roots and better environment in rhizosphere for growth and development. These results are in close vicinity with the findings of Das et al. (2015) [6] , Panchal et al. (2017) [12] in chickpea.

Effects on yield attributes

The data exhibited in Table 3 showed that the length of pods, number of seeds/pod and test weight were not significantly influenced by the application of different organic manures and bio-enhancers on greengram under organic farming. While in case of number of pods/plant was significantly higher (28.91) with the treatment T5 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) and it was at par with the treatments T4 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha) (26.46). This might be due to increased supply of almost all essential plant nutrients which provides good vegetative growth thus increased the photosynthetic activity and further, the translocation and accumulation of photosynthates in the economic sinks. The findings closely followed the results of Shekh et al. (2018) [15] in groundnut, Choudhary et al. (2017) [5] in blackgram, Chongre et al. (2019) [4] and Rao et al. (2021) [14] in greengram.

Effect on yield and quality parameter

The data presented in Table 4 indicated that treatment T5 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) (23.82%) recorded significantly higher protein content which was at par with treatments T4 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha) (23.36%), T6 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha) (22.90%), T8 (Vermicompost @ 1 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) (22.86%) and T11 (Ghanjivamrut @ 1 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) (22.38%). While, significantly higher protein yield (229 kg/ha) was obtained under treatment T5 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) which was at par with treatments T4 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha) (214 kg/ha) and T6 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha) (202 kg/ha). It might be due to better availability of desired and required nutrients in the crop root zone resulting from its solubilization caused by the organic acid produce from the decaying organic matter and also increased their uptake by greengram roots due to its association with micro-organisms, ultimately reflected into higher seed yield and protein content. These results are in agreement with those reported by Jani et al. (2020) [8] in cowpea, Jayachithra and Abirami (2016) [9] in horsegram. The data presented in Table 4 indicated that among the different organic manures and bio-enhancers, application of T5 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) gave significantly higher seed yield which was at par with T4 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha), T6 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha). While in case of stover yield, T5 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray) recorded significantly highest among the different treatments which was at par with T4 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Jivamrut @ 500 L/ha), T6 (FYM @ 5 t/ha + Amritpani @ 500 L/ha) and T8 (Vermicompost @ 1 t/ha + Panchgavya @ 4% spray). This might be due to application of FYM and panchgavya increase the yield attributes like number of pods per plant, number of seeds/pod which reflected in higher yield of greengram. The present findings are in accordance with those reported earlier by Choudhary et al. (2017) [5] in blackgram, Chongre et al. (2019) [4] and Rao et al. (2021) [14] in greengram.

Conclusion

From the results of one year experimentation, it is concluded that for obtaining higher yield of greengram and maintaining soil fertility under organic farming, kharif greengram should be fertilized with farm yard manure @ 5 t/ha, along with either foliar spray of panchgavya @ 4% spray, at the time of branching and flowering stage, or soil application of jivamrut @ 500 l/ha or amritpani @ 500 l/ha at the time of sowing and 30 DAS.

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