Nutrient Application from Integrated Sources Improve Crop Yield and Soil Properties of Water Eroded Land

Crop nutrition from integrated sources is advocated for higher productivity and soil fertility. The current research was designed to the exact ratio of nutrients from organic and inorganic sources for water eroded lands during 2007-08. The combination of nutrient sources tested were; control, NPK50 (50% NPK), NPK75 (75% NPK), NPK100 (100% NPK), FYM10 (10 t ha^-1 FYM), NPK50+FYM10, NPK75+FYM10, NPK100+FYM10, FYM20 (20 t ha^-1 FYM), NPK50+FYM20, NPK75+FYM20, NPK100+FYM20. Results revealed that NPK75FYM20` significantly (p 0.05) improved the yield. As regards soil properties, NPK20FYM20 reduced bulk density, increased WHC, saturation percentage, organic matter content, plant available N, P and K significantly (p 0.05) both at 0-15 and 15-30 cm depths. Effect of fertilizer sources either alone or in integrated form was non-significant on Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn concentration. Economic analysis showed that NPK75FYM20 rewarded the maximum net income of Rs. 43108 ha^-1, indicating its superiority for profitable wheat yield under rain-fed conditions. It can be concluded from these results that the application of plant nutrients from a variety of natural and manufactured fertilizer sources improve crop yield as well as augment the fertility of soils suffering from water erosion hazards.