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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Agron.
Sec. Agroecological Cropping Systems
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fagro.2024.1458603

Organic input incorporation for enhancing sustainability and economic viability of cowpea in North-Western Himalayan region

Provisionally accepted
Tarun Sharma Tarun Sharma 1Janardan Singh Janardan Singh 1*Anshuman Semwa Anshuman Semwa 2*Sparsh Madaik Sparsh Madaik 2Pardeep Kumar Pardeep Kumar 1Akashdeep Singh Akashdeep Singh 1,3*Bharat B. Rana Bharat B. Rana 1*Garima Chauhan Garima Chauhan 1*Rohit Khargotra Rohit Khargotra 4Tabish Alam Tabish Alam 5
  • 1 Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, India
  • 2 College of Horticulture and Forestry, Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Neri, Himachal Pradesh, India
  • 3 Faculty of Agriculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nirwan University, Jaipur, India
  • 4 Faculty of Engineering, Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Pannonia, Veszprem, Hungary
  • 5 Central Building Research Institute (CSIR), Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    ) cultivation encounters a plethora of challenges such as suboptimal productivity levels, declined income levels and poor soil health under conventional fertilization systems. Therefore, the present field investigation was undertaken at Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, CSKHPKV, Palampur in Rainy season of 2019 to evaluate eight combinations of organic farming and Zero Budget Natural Farming (NF) based inputs i.e., Beejamrita (100 ml kg -1 of seed) + Jeewamrita (187.5 l ha -1 ); Beejamrita (100 ml kg -1 of seed) + GhanaJeewamrita (250 kg ha -1 ); Beejamrita (100 ml kg -1 of seed) + Jeewamrita (187.5 l ha -1 ) + GhanaJeewamrita (250 kg ha -1 ); Farm Yard Manure (FYM) 10 Mg ha -1 ; FYM (10 Mg ha -1 ) + GhanaJeewamrita (250 kg ha -1 ); Biofertilizers (PSBs and Rhizobium @10 g kg -1 of seed) + FYM (10 Mg ha -1 ) + Vermiwash (1:10); Biofertilizers (PSBs and Rhizobium @ 10 g kg -1 of seed) + Vermicompost (7.5 Mg ha -1 ) + Vermiwash (1:10); Absolute (Untreated) control; in a randomized complete block design with three replications for their influence over cowpea productivity, profitability and energetics. The results of investigation revealed that applying FYM (10 Mg ha -1 ) and GhanaJeewamrita (250 kg ha -1 ) in-combination resulted in significantly higher grain yield (1070.5 kg ha -1 ), economic net returns (766.61 USD ha -1 ), net energy gains (78230 MJ ha -1 ) as well as considerably improved soil microbial biomass carbon (133.92 μg g -1 of soil), nitrogen (27.40 μg g -1 of soil), urease (52.20 (μg g -1 urea of soil hr -1 ) and dehydrogenase activity (5.21 μg g -1 TPF of soil hr -1 ). Therefore, in-combination application-based module of FYM ( 10Mg ha -1 ) and GhanaJeewamrita (250 kg ha -1 ) can be recommended for enhancing productivity and profitability of cowpea cultivation under North-Western Himalayan agro-ecological conditions. This study contributes valuable insights for organic input strategies in regions facing similar challenges.

    Keywords: cowpea, energetics, Organic, profitability, soil biology, yield

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 13 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sharma, Singh, Semwa, Madaik, Kumar, Singh, Rana, Chauhan, Khargotra and Alam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Janardan Singh, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, India
    Anshuman Semwa, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Neri, 177001, Himachal Pradesh, India
    Akashdeep Singh, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, India
    Bharat B. Rana, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, India
    Garima Chauhan, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, India

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