Impact on Soil Health under Organic Nutrient Management in Transplanted Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L.)

Abstract

Background: Finger millet being highly nutritious and easy to digest is one of the important crops grown in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. Organic farming is gaining importance among the farmers with increasing yield, improving the quality of grains, and maintaining soil quality. Since the land availability is decreasing with increasing population. Finger millet has great scope under organic cultivation which could result in increased soil condition. Methodology: A field trial was performed at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam, Tuticorin, TNAU, Tamil Nadu from 2019 to 2020 during the rabi season to evaluate the performance of various organic sources concerning the soil properties changes. The study was conducted with an RBD design. Treatments include solid manures and liquid organics combination and their performance was evaluated. Finger millet - Co (Ra) 15 was used as a test variety. Soil health represents the soil properties generally including pH, EC, organic carbon content, N, P, and K levels, and also the soil microbial population. Results and Discussion: From the study, it was found that the application of 100 percent of nitrogen through poultry with foliar application of panchagavya at 30 and 45 DAT gave better yield and also enriched the soil fertility status. Conclusion: 100% N through Poultry manure and 3% panchagavya foliar spray at 30 & 45 DAT in transplanted finger millet gave increased soil health with higher soil properties. Thus, Organic farming proved to be an eco-friendly management option in finger millet for maintaining good soil health.