Online ISSN : 2349-8080 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorinchiefijcrbp@gmail.com |
Sorghum and wheat are the premier food grain crops of the peninsular central India and in particular of Maharashtra. There has been a phenomenal increase in its production after mid sixties with the introduction of high yielding varieties. Increase in production was achieved through increase in area as well as productivity. Inputs like improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizers etc. has given a boost to productivity. Continuous addition of chemical fertilizers poses problems like toxicity due to high amounts of salts as residues of fertilizer and deterioration of the physico-chemical properties. Organic manure ameliorates this problem as organic matter helps in increasing adsorptive power of soil for cations and anions particularly phosphate and nitrate. Long term manuring and fertilizer experiments conducted in India showed declining trend in productivity even with the application of NPK fertilizers under modern intensive farming. Neither organic source alone nor inorganic fertilizers can achieve sustainability in crop production under intensive agriculture, where nutrient turnover in soil-plant system is much higher. However, their combined use appeared promising in enhanced crop productivity besides improving soil fertility.