International Journal of Plant & Soil Science

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2020-21 to Kharif 2021 at Research Farm, Agronomy, CSKHPKV, Palampur (H.P.) to study growth analysis, NPK uptake and crude protein content in diversified cropping system under natural farming. The experiment was consisted of 9 treatments (C₁ -Maize - wheat, C₂-Black gram - wheat + gram, C₃-Soybean - wheat + lentil, C₄-Cowpea - wheat + sarson, C₅-Okra - wheat + pea, C₆-Maize + black gram - gram, C₇-Maize + soybean - lentil, C₈-Maize + cowpea - sarson and C₉-Maize + okra - pea), replicated three time in Randomized Block Design. The natural farming inputs includes beejamrit (used for seed treatment @ 1 litre/10 kg seed), jeevamrit (5 drenching application at 21 days interval; total used 450 litres), ghanjeevamrit (soil applied during sowing @ 500 kg ha^-1) and mulching (applied after germination @ 10000 kg ha^-1). Legume-based systems resulted in significantly higher CGR and RGR among the cropping systems. During Rabi 2020-21, the highest CGR was observed in the C₃ (soybean - wheat + lentil) of 5.53 g m^-2 day^-1, followed by C₁ (maize - wheat) at 5.29 g m^-2 day^-1. In Kharif 2021, C₄ (cowpea - wheat + sarson) showed the highest CGR (10.22 g m^-2 day^-1). Higher RGR was found in C₇ system (maize + soybean - lentil) at 8.89 mg g^-1 day^-1, in Rabi 2020-21. While, the system C₂ (black gram - wheat + gram) resulted in higher RGR at 13.76 mg g^-1 day^-1 before harvest in Kharif 2021. Legumes enhances nutrient uptake by improving soil fertility and also resulted in improved the dry matter accumulation during mid-to-late crop stages under natural farming.  A significant variation was observed higher nutrient uptake in both seed and by-products with legume-based systems under natural farming.  Enhanced crude protein content was found in the legume-based systems, such as C₈ (maize + cowpea - sarson) with 75.50 % in Rabi 2020-21.