Optimization of Jeevamrit doses and application time for enhancing productivity of wheat under natural farming system

Abstract

Jeevamrit is claimed to be a panacea for natural farming to fulfill the nutritional requirement of crops as well as for pest management. For reducing the indiscriminate use of chemicals in field crop production, there is a need of adopting jeevamrit based natural farming. Considering this rationale, a field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2017-18 at organic farm of Department of Organic Agriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur to evaluate the doses and application time of Jeevamrit in wheat under natural farming system. Ten treatments comprising of jeevamrit application @ 5 per cent at 2, 3 & 4 weeks interval (T1, T2 & T3), jeevamrit @ 10 per cent at 2, 3 & 4 weeks interval (T4, T5 & T6), jeevamrit @ 20 per cent at 2, 3 & 4 weeks interval (T7, T8 & T9) and vermicompost @ 10 t/ha + 3 sprays of vermiwash @ 750 l/ha (T10) were randomly allocated and replicated thrice under randomized block design. As per the findings, significantly higher grain yield (3117 kg/ha) was recorded with jeevamrit application @ 20 per cent at 2 weeks interval (T3),which was at par with application of jeevamrit @ 10 per cent at 2 (T2) & 3 (T5) weeks interval, jeevamrit @ 20 per cent at 3 weeks interval (T6) and to the check (vermicompost @ 10 t/ha + 3 sprays of vermiwash @ 750 l/ha). Maximum B:C ratio (1.69) was recorded with application of jeevamrit @ 10 per cent at 3 weeks interval which was followed by application of jeevamrit @ 10 per cent at 2 weeks interval. The results showed that application of jeevamrit in natural farming system is capable of producing high yields of good quality and is commercially viable since it registered better net returns and B:C ratio.