Quality and Economics of Bt Cotton as Influenced by Compost, Organic and Inorganic Fertilisers

Abstract

Agricultural application of urban waste as nutrient source for plants and as soil conditioner, is the most cost effective option of waste management because of its advantages over traditional means such as land filling or incineration. Composting is an attractive alternative of urban waste recycling. Intensive cropping and indiscriminate fertilizer application depleted available NPK in almost all soils in India. Hence, replenishment of shoveled out nutrients is very essential, especially when exhaustive crops like cotton is cultivated. With this backdrop an experiment was conducted during kharif, 2014 carried out at College Farm, College of Agriculture, PJTSAU, Hyderabad, India to find the effect of combined application of municipal city compost with inorganic fertilisers on the yield, quality and economics of Bt cotton. The experiment was laid out in randomised complete block design with three replicates and eleven treatments viz; 100 % NPK alone (RDF: 150: 60: 60 kg NPK ha-1)100% NPK + FYM (farmers practice) and 100 %, 75%, 50% NPK integrated with 3 levels of Godavari Gold (GG) @ 1.25, 1.875 and 2.5 tonnes ha-1 respectively. The results indicated that Bt cotton registered significantly higher yield attributes and yield with the integrated application of 100 % NPK + 2.5 t ha-1 of Godavari Gold compost as compared to 100% NPK alone, 100% NPK + FYM (farmers practice) and 75 % RDF (112.5-45-45 kg NPK ha-1) and 50 % RDF (75-30-30 kg NPK ha-1) integrated with Godavari gold compost @ 1.25, 1.875 and 2.5 tonnes ha-1.There were no significant differences in quality parameters. Highest gross, net returns and B: C ratio was accrued with the application of 100 % NPK + 2.5 t ha-1 of Godavari Gold compost.