Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
fore, recently greater emphasis is being laid on the cropping system as a
whole rather than on the individual crops. In addition, organic manures
and biofertilizers have carry-over effect on the succeeding crops. Jamaval
(2006) reported that around 30% of the applied nitrogen as manure may
become available to the immediate crop and rest to the subsequent crops.
Maintenance of soil fertility is important for obtaining higher and sustain-
able yield due to large turnover of nutrient in the soil-plant system. Mung
bean (
Vigna radiate
L.), commonly known as green gram, is an important
conventional pulse crop in India. It has an edge over other pulses because
of its high nutritive value, digestibility, and non-fl atulent behavior. It is
grown principally for its protein-rich edible seeds (Haq 1989). An impor-
tant feature of the mung bean crop is its ability to establish a symbiotic
partnership with specifi c bacteria, setting up the biological N
2
fi xation in
root nodules that supplies required nitrogen to the plant (Mandal et al.
2009). The present investigation was therefore undertaken to assess the
residual infl uence of organic materials and biofertilizers applied to rice
and wheat on yield, nutrient status, and economics of succeeding mung
bean in an organic cropping system.
6.2 METHODS
6.2.1 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The field experiment was conducted during spring 2007 and 2008 at the
research farm of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi,
India to study the residual effects of organic materials, crop residues, and
biofertilizers applied to the cropping system on performance of succeed-
ing mung bean crop (Figure 1). It is situated at 28.4°N latitude and 77.1°E
longitude at an elevation of 228.6 m above the mean sea level (Arabian
Sea) for two years (2006 to 2007 and 2007 to 2008). The soil was medium
in organic C (5.1-mg kg
−1
soil), low in available nitrogen (73.1-mg kg
−1
soil), medium in available phosphorus (8.42-mg kg
−1
soil), available po-
tassium (108.87-mg kg
−1
soil), and had a pH 8.16. The experiment was
laid out in a randomized block design with three replications.
