Long-term Fertilization Impacts on the Physical, Chemical, and Biological Characteristics of the Soil under Finger Millet-Maize Sequence in an Inceptisol

Abstract

A long-term experiment with a finger millet- maize cropping sequence was undertaken to investigate the integrated nutrient management (INM) practices with the sources of organic manures and chemical fertilizers sources of nutrients. Results revealed that the balanced application of nutrients and also their conjoint application in an integrated manner through inorganic and organic sources sustained higher s yields over the years and impacted positively the soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Increase in soil organic carbon content from 3.0 g kg-1 to 7.27 g kg-1 was observed in INM treatment. Nearly 48 years of long-term fertilizer experiments (LTFE) results lead to a conclusion that the balanced and integrated application of nutrients sustains crop productivity, improves soil health with balanced organic carbon status and production potentiality of the soil for finger millet –maize cropping sequence.