Managing Organic Manures for Carbon Sequestration toImprove Soil Health and Sustained Vegetable Yield

Soil fertility and soil health are deteriorated owing to indiscriminate use of mineral sources withno organic inputs. However, large volumes of animal manure are available which can be used fornutrient cyclingand soil health. A pot experiment was conducted designed in CompleteRandomized Design with eight treatments including control and three rates 2.5, 5and 7 tons ha-1ofpoultry and goat manure, each and balanced rate of mineral fertilizers, respectively. Itwasrevealedthat both manures applied affected soil organic carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and PotashNPK (75:60:30 kg ha-1), plant height, fresh & dry weight of spinach yield (P< 0.01).The highestvalues for organic carbon nitrogen, phosphorus and potashcontents were obtained when poultry manurewas applied at7 tons ha-1. Manure ofpoultryat the rate of 7 tons ha-1significantly influencedorganiccarbon1.11%, N 0.055 %, P 6.89 mg kg-1,K 64.06 mg kg-1,plant height 37.42 cm,fresh & dryweight 43.31gand7.95g, respectively. In comparison, control treatment resulted inminimum,organic carbon 0.23%,N0.011 %,P1.42 mg kg-1, K 35.23%andyielded2.18g plant dry weight.Comparison of the responses from manures revealed the trend was; Poultry manure > NPK > goatmanure. This was largely attributed to differences in organic carbon, N, P, and C/N ratios of theamendments.It is concluded that goat and poultry manure could be applied for soil carbonsequestrationsustained crop production and maintainsoil fertility & soil health.