Effect of Different Levels of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza and Phosphorus on Productivity and Profitability of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Soil Conservation and Water Management Farm of Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur during rabi season, in 2019-20 to study the effect of different levels of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (AM) and phosphorus on yield attributes, yield and economics of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with 3 replications. The treatments were consisted of 4 levels of AM fungi inoculation i.e., control, AM @ 8 kg ha-1, AM @ 12 kg ha-1 and AM @ 16 kg ha-1 along with 4 phosphorus fertility level i.e., control, phosphorus @ 20 kg ha-1, phosphorus @ 30 kg ha-1 and phosphorus @ 40 kg ha-1 were tested in the experiment. The results indicated that the AM fungi inoculation level @ 16 kg ha-1 showed the highest yield attributes, yield and economics viz. number of productive tillers (9.03 m-2), number of grain ear-1 (9.16), test weight (45.36g), grain yield (28.13 q ha-1), gross return (INR 45774.20 ha-1), net return (INR 18143.04 ha-1 ) and B:C ratio (1.66) followed by the AM fungi inoculation level @ 12 kg ha-1 while it was observed minimum under control. However, the phosphorus fertility level @ 40 kg ha-1 gave better yield attributes, yield and economics viz., number of productive tillers (9.16 m-1), number of grain ear-1 (59.36), test weight (45.09g), grain yield (28.79), gross return (INR 47377.60 ha-1), net return (INR 18229.50 ha-1) and B:C ratio (1.63) followed by the phosphorus fertility level @ 30 kg ha-1 while observed minimum under control. On the basis of observed results, farmers are advised to raise barley with AM fungi inoculation level @ 16 kg ha-1 along with application of phosphorus @ 40 kg ha-1 for best growth, yield, economics and soil health.