Effect of replacing a part of nitrogenous fertilizer by brown manuring in direct seeded rice: a field study

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted, during wet season 2012, to study effects of replacing 25% of nitrogenous fertilizer by brown manuring in direct seeded rice on plant height, effective tiller number, vermcast per square meter, grain yield, organic carbon content and benefit to cost ratio. The plant height (1.57%), effective tiller number (9.09%), organic carbon content (13.04%) and grain yield (7.91%) were increased in the brown manuring plots as compared to farmers practice. The biomass incorporated in the field (133%) and vermcast/m 2 (63.26%) was significantly improved in the brown manuring fields indicating better soil health. The benefit to cost ratio was 7.79% more in the brown manuring plots than that of farmers practice. The findings from the present study indicated that use of nitrogenous fertilizer can be reduced up to 25% in the farmers’ field without affecting the economical attributes and saving the precious soil health in the farmer’s fields.