Economics of barley as influenced by integrated nutrient management practices

Abstract

The malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) industry is often challenged by the availability of sufficient volume and quality to meet demand. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of integrated nutrient management practices on economics of barley. The study was conducted in the rabi season of 2017-2018 on a sandy loam soil at Research Farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar .The soil of the experimental field is slightly alkaline in reaction, low in organic carbon and nitrogen, medium in available phosphorus and potassium. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design replicated thrice with ten different treatments viz. T1(Control), T2 (Biomix) , T3 (Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1), T4 ( Biomix + Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1), T5 (50% RDN + Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1), T6 (75% RDN + Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1), T7 (50% RDN + Biomix + Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1), T8 (75% RDN + Biomix+ Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1), T9 (RDN) and T10 (RDN + Biomix + Vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1). Among nutrient management practices treatments T10 recorded significantly higher gross returns, net returns and benefit: cost ratio of barley. Performance in terms of economics of barley in treatment T8 (75% RDN + Biomix+ Vermicompost @ 5t ha-1) was at par with treatment T9 (RDN) and T10 (RDN + Biomix + Vermicompost @ 5t ha-1). But various combinations of nitrogen fertilizer, biomix and vermicompost failed to produce any significant variation in harvest and attraction index of barley.