Effect of different farming practices and foliar application of liquid organic manures on soil biological properties in soybean

Abstract

The experiment entitled “Intensification of natural farming foe bridging yield gap in soybean in vertisols” was carried out at Main Agricultural Research Station, UAS, Dharwad, during Kharif, 2022-23, 2023-24. The experiment field had been passed through the transitional period of three years to convert into chemical free farming. The study was conducted with an objective of finding the influence of different farming practices and foliar sprays of liquid organic manures on productivity and soil microbial properties. The results wereamong the treatment interactions, RPP recorded higher grain and straw yield (3901 and 5914 kg ha-1, respectively) than other treatments. However, organic farming with panchagavya (A2B2)was statically on par with RPP (3845 and 6559 kg ha-1, respectively).Organic farming with panchagavyarecorded significantly higher N2 fixers (12.50, 30.51 and 13.60 × 105 CFU g-1 of soil), PSM population (14.14, 33.40 and 15.42 × 104 CFU g-1 of soil), dehydrogenase (33.68, 73.93 and 38.79 μg TPF formed g-1 soil day-1), phosphatase (120.67, 249.49 and 123.30 μg pNP g-1 of soil hr-1) and microbial biomass carbon (229.42,315.02 and 272.22mg kg-1 of soil) at initial, flowering and harvest, respectively as compared to other treatment combinations. RPP recorded higher urease activity (11.84, 35.21 and 16.96 μg NH4-N g-1 soil day-1) at initial, flowering and harvest, respectively.