Effect of Biofertilizer Seed Treatment on Growth, Yield and Economics of Toria (Brassica Campestris L.) under Rainfed Condition in Hill Zone of Assam

Introduction

India accounted for 19% of oilseeds area, and 2.7% of oilseeds production in the world, (FAOSTAT, 2013). Rapeseed and mustard is the second most important oilseed crop in India after ground nut. In terms of area, oilseeds occupy 14.1 per cent, rape seed and mustard alone occupies 3 per cent of the total cropped area in the country.¹ Rapeseed and mustard is cultivated on 6.32 million hectares in India with an annual production and productivity of 7.39 million tones and 1170 kgha^-1 (Anonymous, 2016).²

Although, India occupies second place in rapeseed and mustard production after China, yet its productivity is far below compared to the world average.³ The low productivity of rapeseed and mustard in India is due to sub-optimal application of fertilizers and cultivation under rainfed conditions.⁴ There is ample opportunity to bridge this yield gap of these crops in the country through use of organic manures and biofertilizers along with chemical fertilizers.

Toria responds favorably to bio- fertilizers, viz., Azotobacter and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria (PSB).⁵ In view of the escalating price of fertilizers and its ill effects on soil health, there is a need to focus on integrated nutrient supply system that may improve crop production with reduced cost of cultivation. Biofertilizers are reported to enhance the yield of Indian mustard^6, which is mainly attributed to better N nutrition through N₂ – fixation, enhancement of nutrient availability and uptake and production of growth hormones such as indol acetic acid, gibberellins etc.^7,8,9

In Assam, toria is cultivated in an area of 2.81 lakh ha with a production and productivity of 1.88 lakh MT and 6.67qha^-1, which is lower than the national average, respectively.¹⁰ Karbi Anglong district, which falls under the Hill Zone of Assam, has a sizeable area under rapeseed-mustard cultivation with area and production 0.28 lakh ha and 0.20 lakh MT, respectively.¹⁰ The productivity is also much low its potential yield, which may be due to non utilization of chemical fertilizers and low biological activity of the soils.¹¹ As the majority of the area under cultivation in the district is organic by default, there is ample opportunity of enhancing the productivity of toria through use of biofertilizers. Therefore, an on farm trial was conducted at the farmers’ field of Karbi Anglong district to study the effect of biofertilizer seed treatment in toria in conjunction with organic manures and chemical fertilizers under rainfed condition.

Materials and Methods

The investigation was carried out at farmer’s field during rabi season (October-January) of 2015-16 and 2016-17 at five villages in Karbi Anglong district under hill zone of Assam. The experimental soils were sandy loam to clay loam with pH 5.75 to 6.10, medium in organic carbon (0.56 to 0.75%), medium in available N ( 244.8 to 290.32 kgha^-1), low in available P₂O₅ (6.10 to 12.55 kgha^-1) and medium in available K₂O ( 133.6 to 223.4 kgha^-1).The experiment was conducted at five farmers’ field as replication with five treatment combinations. The treatment combinations were: T1- Recommended NPK, T2- Recommended NPK + FYM, T3- Azotobacter + PSB + 50% NPK + FYM, T4- Azotobacter + PSB + 75% NPK +FYM and T5- Farmers practice (control). The farmers’ cultivation practice is application of only farm yard manure (FYM) @ 1-2 t ha^-1.

Inoculants of nitrogen fixing bacteria (Azotobacter) and Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) was mixed with the seeds and kept in shade for 20 minutes and sown immediately. The quantity of biofertilizer culture was used @ 40g kg^-1 seed and the recommended dose of NPK @ 65:35:0 kg ha^-1. FYM was applied @ 2 t ha^-1 to all the treatments except T₁ and T₅ and fertilizers as per the treatments were applied at the time of land preparation. The observations on plant height, number of branches, siliqua per plant, root weight, and 1000 seed weight were recorded. Available soil nutrients as well as nutrient content were determined following the standard procedures.¹² Final crop yield (seed & stover) were recorded and the economics of cultivation were calculated on the basis of prevailing market price of the produce.

The experimental data were pooled over two growing seasons and statistically analyzed applying the techniques of analysis of variance and by error mean square of Fisher Snedecor’s ‘F’ test at probability level 0.05.^13,14

Results and Discussion

Growth Parameters

The data on different parameters are presented in table 1. The highest plant height (88.52 cm), number of branches plant^-1 (4.93), root dry weight (2.30g) was recorded in T4 (Azotobacter + PSB + 75 % of recommended NPK + FYM), which was significantly higher than T₁ (Recommended NPK) and T₂ (Recommended NPK + FYM). The minimum plant height (73.33cm), number of branches plant^-1 (4.17), root dry weight plant^-1 (1.24 g) was recorded at farmer’s practice (control). The better root growth as evidenced by significantly higher root dry weight (2.46 g plant^-1) in treatment receiving Azotobacter + PSB + 75% NPK + FYM and Azotobacter+ PSB +50% NPK + FYM (2.33 g plant^-1) might have helped the plants to uptake more nutrients and water, thereby resulted better plant growth. Improved plant growth by Azotobacter sp. and PSB may be attributed to several mechanisms especially growth hormone production, improving the efficiency of roots, by supplying combined nitrogen and increasing phosphorus availibilty¹⁵. In another study reported increased plant height (116.0 cm), branches plant^-1 (7.0) and pod plant^-1 (173.6) under Azotobacter and PSB application compared to 103.3 cm, 7.0 branches plant^-1 and 116.1 pods plant^-1 in controlled plot, respectively¹⁶. Similar result of increase in plant height, branches plant^-1 and number of pods plant^-1 in Indian mustard was reported by other workers.^5,17

Table 1: Effect of biofertilizer on plant growth and yield attributes

Yield Attributes

The results of yield attributes given in table 2 indicate significant increase in yield parameters viz. number of siliqua plant^-1, number of seed siliqua^-1, test weight (g) of seeds, seed yield and straw yield of toria due to combined use of inorganic fertilizers, FYM and biofertilizer.

Table 2: Effect of biofertilizer on yield and economic return of toria cultivation

The maximum number of siliqua plant^-1 (164.76), maximum number of seeds siliqua^-1 (10.17) and highest 1000-seed weight (4.92) were recorded in treatment of Azotobacter and PSB + 75 % NPK, which was at par with Azotobacter + PSB + 50% NPK followed by recommended NPK + FYM and recommended NPK. The farmer’s practice recorded the lowest values in all the yield attributing characters. There was also reported increase in seed yield of Indian mustard due to combined application of Azotobcter and PSB by 22.4, 7.8 and 3.6 % over control, PSB and Azotobacter, respectively.¹⁶ Among the different treatments studied, highest net return (Rs.17605 ha^-1) was recorded with T₄ followed by T₃ (Rs 17205 ha^-1) and the minimum net return was recorded from farmer’s practice. The maximum B: C (2.11) was recorded in T_3, which was closely followed by T₄ (2.07). However, the B: C in farmers practice was found to be higher than recommended NPK and recommended NPK + FYM. Similar results of yield enhancement in experimental farm as well as at real farming situation in different crops through technology dissemination has been reported by several researchers.^{18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25}

Conclusion

Considering the above results of the experiment, it is concluded that seed treatment with bio-fertilizer in toria is beneficial for higher crop production, maintenance of soil health and 25 to 50 per cent saving of chemical fertilizer. Application of Azotobacter and PSB in combination with 75 and 50% NPK and FYM @ 2 t ha^-1 may be viable and feasible option for getting higher yield and economic return from cultivation of toria in hill zone of Assam.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Dr. P.K. Pathak, Director of Extension Education, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam for support to carry out this study. The authors would like to thank all the participant farmers for their excellent cooperation and participation in this study

Source of Funding

The experiment was conducted under the budget of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Karbi Anglong, funded by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi.

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