International Journal of Plant & Soil Science

Rice (Oriza sativa) is one of most important kharif cereal crop. The availability of nutrients in the soil for plant utilization is known to be affected not only by the inherent soil characteristics but also by the use of fertilizers and management practices followed for crop production. Therefore, a study on the response of integrated application of inorganic fertilizers and organic manure (vermicompost) on rice productivity at farmer field was carried out at Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. In between the technology intervention, human recourse development components were also included to excel the farmers understanding and skills about the demonstrated technology on nutrient management aspects. The demonstrations were conducted at different farmers' field at villages viz. Koppe, Chillod and Lendejhari on rice (variety JRB-1) during kharif season 2018-19 and 2019-20 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research funded Project on Farmer FIRST, College of Agriculture, Balaghat (M.P.). Based on the basic soil properties of farmer’s field, the present experiment included four treatments viz., T₁ - 100% NPK + 2 t Vermicompost ha^-1, T₂ - 100% NPK, T₃ - 100% NPK (– S) and T₄ – Farmer’s practice. Results indicated that the highest average yield of rice was achieved in the treatment T₁-100% NPK + Vermicompost. Whereas, lowest yield was recorded in T₄-farmer’s practice. Highest rice yield was observed with 100% NPK + vermicompost (47%),followed by 100% NPK (44%) over farmer’s practice. Hence, the integrated use of inorganic fertilizers with vermicompost enhance rice productivity at farmer’s field. Integrated nutrient applications are also more beneficial when the rate of nutrient application is below the normal rate.