Economic analysis of black gram (Vigna mungo) cultivation with organic and inorganic fertilizers under Moringa (Moringa oleifera) based agroforestry systems

Introduction

Agroforestry is a sustainable land management approach that combines trees and agricultural crops to improve productivity, soil health, biodiversity, and ecological sustainability. Trees recycle nutrients from deep soil horizons and litterfall organic matter. They may also provide farmers with other goods and income. It mitigates climate change by sequestering carbon in tree biomass and in soil organic matter (Garrity, 2004) [7] . Moringa oleifera is a useful multi-functional tree for tropical and subtropical agroforestry systems because of its fast growing, drought tolerant and requires few resources, and has wide nutritional, medicinal and economic uses (Fuglie, 2001) [6] . It can also provide additional environmental benefits by producing biomass and sequestering carbon (Adekiya et al. 2020) [1] . Black gram (Vigna mungo L.) is an important short duration legume which is highly valued for its nutritional richness, flexibility and its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. It contains 22-24% protein and 56.6-59.6% carbohydrates. It is best suited for tropical and sub-tropical agro-climatic regions and its short growth duration makes it suitable for multi cropping and intercropping systems with agroforestry (Tomar et al., 2011, Selvakumar et al., 2012) [16,14] . However, the availability of nutrients is a major factor that influences agricultural productivity, more so in situations where crops are grown together with trees. Integrated nutrient management (INM) is the integrated use of inorganic fertilizers, organic manures and biofertilizers in synergy to improve nutrient-use efficiency, maintain soil health and ensure sustained production (Meena et al., 2015; Dhakal et al., 2016) [12,5] . Organic supplements such as vermicompost, farmyard manure and poultry manure may improve soil physical characteristics, microbial activity and nutrient availability, whereas Rhizobium inoculation could improve biological nitrogen fixation in legumes (Vessey 2003; Bhatt et al. 2013) [17,3] . Vermicompost is an organic nutrition source that supplies nutrients and physiologically active substances in a gradually available form, which enhances root development, nutrient absorption, and agricultural yield (Arancon et al., 2004) [2] . FYM enhances soil structure, increases moisture retention capacity and microbial activity along with supply of organic matter and nutrients (Gaur 1999; Ghosh et al., 2004) [8,9] . The well decomposed poultry manure is able to greatly enhance the soil fertility and provide readily available nutrients due to its relatively high nutrient density and rapid mineralization (Gupta & Sharma, 2010) [10] . Rhizobium forms symbiotic association with leguminous plants leading to fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, thereby improving nitrogen nutrition and agricultural yield (Meena et al., 2016; Bhavya et al., 2018) [13, 4] . An agroforestry system based on Moringa oleifera with integrated nutrient management (INM) can be an effective approach to increase black gram yield, improve soil health, optimize the use of resources and ensure sustainability. The present research was carried out to evaluate the effect of integrated nutrient management techniques i.e. chemical fertilizers, organic manures and biofertilizers on the growth of black gram grown under moringa based agroforestry system. The objectives of the experiment were to evaluate the economics of different treatments.

Materials and Methods

The experiment was conducted at Forest Nursery and Research Center, College of Forestry, Sam Higginbottom University, Prayagraj during 2024-2025 on a Moringa plantation with a spacing of 9 × 9 m 2 . The research site is located at latitude 25 0 24' 42" N and longitude 81 0 50'56" and elevation at 98m above mean Sea level. The location is situated to the southeast of Uttar Pradesh and has a tropical to sub-tropical climate with temperature ranging from 5 °C in winter to more than 45 °C in summer and an average annual rainfall of 1100 mm mainly during the monsoon months from July to September.

Results and Discussion

Table 2 shows the effect of different level of recommended doses of fertilizers (RDF) and mixture of rhizobium culture and different organic amendments like farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure and vermicompost on the economics of Black gram. It was noted that the economics of Black gram was greatly influenced by different level of recommended doses of fertilizers (RDF) and mixture of rhizobium culture and 2.5 t ha -1 and 5 t ha -1 of organic amendments like farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure and vermicompost. Variations in cultivation costs resulted in different production costs. The cost of cultivation increases with increasing level of RDF. However, there was a maximum B:C ratio at T 22 (75% RDF + 5 t ha -1 Vermicompost with Rhizobium culture) i.e, 1.90. Increases in level of RDF and Organic manure from the lowest to the highest significantly improved gross returns, net returns and benefit cost ratio. This can be attributed to the fact that the application of Integrated Nutrient Management from lowest to highest increased the yield of Black gram. These results are consistent with the experimental findings of (Kumar et al., 2020; Singh et al., 2019) [11,15] .

Conclusion

Economic analysis showed that the integrated nutrient management significantly increased the profitability of black gram as against control and treatments with organic manures without adequate inorganic fertilizer. The treatment T 22 recorded the highest cost of cultivation (₹64,989 ha⁻¹) but maximum gross return (₹1,23,363 ha⁻¹), net return (₹58,374 ha⁻¹) and B:C ratio (1.90). Thus, T 22 (75% RDF + 5 t ha⁻¹ Vermicompost + Rhizobium culture) was observed to be the most economic treatment among the various nutrient management combinations. The results indicated that the combined application of organic fertilizer, vermicompost and Rhizobium enhanced the productivity and profitability of black gram under the experimental conditions and can be recommended as a promising nutrient management strategy for sustainable black gram production.

References

1. Adekiya AO, Agbede TM, Olayanju A, Ejue WS, Ugbe JO, Aremu C. The use of Moringa oleifera leaf-based organic amendments and poultry manure for the improvement of soil properties and ginger (Zingiber officinale) performance in a tropical Alfisol. Agriculture. 2020;10(4):145.
2. Arancon NQ, Edwards CA, Atiyeh R, Metzger JD. Effects of vermicomposts produced from food waste on the growth and yields of greenhouse peppers. Bioresource Technology. 2004;93(2):139-144.
3. Bhatt PK, Patel PT, Patel BT, Raval CH, Vyas KG, Shaukat Ali SA. Productivity, quality, nutrient content and soil fertility of summer greengram (Vigna radiata) as influenced by different levels of vermicompost and phosphorus with and without PSB. 2013.
4. Bhavya G, Shaker KC, Jayasree G, Reddy MM. Effect of phosphorus, biofertilizers and organic manures on root nodulation and productivity of green gram (Vigna radiata L.). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences. 2018;7(6):11401145.
5. Dhakal Y, Meena RS, Kumar S. Effect of INM on nodulation, yield, quality and available nutrient status in soil after harvest of green gram. Legume Research. 2016;39(4):590-594.
6. Fuglie LJ, editor. The miracle tree: the multiple attributes of Moringa oleifera. 2001.
7. Garrity DP. Agroforestry and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Agroforestry Systems. 2004;61(1):5-17.
8. Gaur PM, Gaur VK. An induced fasciated mutant of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding. 1999;59(3):325-330.
9. Ghosh PK, Ramesh P, Bandyopadhyay KK, Tripathi AK, Hati KM, Misra AK. Comparative effectiveness of cattle manure, poultry manure, phosphocompost and fertilizer-NPK on three cropping systems in vertisols of semi-arid tropics. Bioresource Technology. 2004;95(1):77-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2004.02.006
10. Gupta N, Sharma J, Rajput P, Bhoyar A, Malik A. Effect of integrated nutrient management on growth and yield of black gram (Vigna mungo L.). Ecology, Environment and Conservation. 2025;31:95.
11. Kumar R, Yadav RL, Singh AK. Effect of poultry manure and biofertilizers on growth and yield of mungbean (Vigna radiata L.). Legume Research. 2020;43(5):653-658. https://doi.org/10.18805/LR-444
12. Meena RS, Dhakal Y, Bohra JS, Singh SP, Singh MK, Sanodiya P, et al. Influence of bioinorganic combinations on yield, quality and economics of mung bean. Journal of Experimental Agriculture International. 2015:159-166.
13. Meena BS, Baldev Ram BR. Effect of integrated nutrient management on productivity, soil fertility and economics of blackgram (Vigna mungo) varieties under rainfed condition. 2016.
14. Selvakumar G, Reetha S, Thamizhiniyan P. Response of biofertilizers on growth, yield attributes and associated protein profiling changes of blackgram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper). 2012.
15. Singh PK, Mohd Anees, Kumar M, Yadav KG, Kumar A, Sharma R, et al. Effect of integrated nutrient management on growth, yield and quality of moong bean (Vigna radiata L.). Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry. 2019;SP2:1003-1006.
16. Tomar OK, Singh D, Singh D. Genetic divergence in chickpea. Journal of Food Legumes. 2011;24(4):296298.
17. Vessey JK. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria as biofertilizers. Plant and Soil. 2003;255(2):571-586.