Organic Fertilizers Effect on Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Tuber Production in Sandy Loam Soil

Abstract

Potatoes are one of the most common and important vegetable crops in the world and carrying different health benefits that make them all the more essential as a staple dietary item for much of the world’s population. The high nutrient content, ability to adapt to marginal environments, relative ease of cultivation and low cost and high productivity are attributes that make potatoes one of the principal and most important sources of food and income for developing countries. Considering the importance of organic manure for potato cultivation, the experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of four organic fertilizers on potato tuber production in sandy loam soil. The most popular and easily available two potato cultivars namely Cardinal and Diamant and four organic fertilizers viz., cowdung at the rate of 8 t ha-1, chicken manure at the rate of 8 t ha-1, Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) developed organic fertilizer at the rate of 740 kg ha-1 and Northern organic fertilizer at the rate of 500 kg ha-1 along with a control. The results revealed that the plant height, number of leaves, leaves fresh weight, yield contributing characters and yield were significantly different and higher in organic fertilizers over control. The highest plant height, leaf number, leaf fresh weight, total dry matter, absolute growth rate, tuber growth rate, tubers plant-1 and larger tuber size were observed in chicken manure which resulted the highest tuber yield (29.71 t ha-1) followed by cowdung (28.67 t ha-1) with same statistical rank. The third highest tuber yield was recorded in RDRS organic fertilizer (26.42 t ha-1) and Northern organic fertilizer (26.00 t ha-1). Besides, the potato cultivar, cardinal gave the highest tuber yield (26.39 t ha-1) compare to diamont (24.57 t ha-1). Finally, the potato cultivar cardinal and organic fertilizers, chicken manure followed by cowdung are recommended for potato cultivation in Rangpur region due to the highest yield production as well as maximum benefit-cost ratio.