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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Nutrition
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1448909
This article is part of the Research Topic Application and Mechanism of Plant Biostimulants, Biochar, Fertilizer Products, and Other Nutrition-related Agrochemicals View all 20 articles

Exploring the use of POLY4 for improvement of productivity, quality of peanut and fate on soil properties in Alfisols of Southern India

Provisionally accepted
Gopinath K A Gopinath K A 1Rajanna GA Rajanna GA 2*Venugopalan Visha Kumari Venugopalan Visha Kumari 1*Vinod Kumar Singh Vinod Kumar Singh 1*Ajay BC Ajay BC 2Neeraj K. Awasthi Neeraj K. Awasthi 3Vipin Mishra Vipin Mishra 3Suvana Sukumaran Suvana Sukumaran 1Govindarajan Venkatesh Govindarajan Venkatesh 1Bollam Rajkumar Bollam Rajkumar 1
  • 1 Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (ICAR), Hyderabad, India
  • 2 Regional Research Station, Anantapur - 515701, India, Directorate of Groundnut Research (ICAR-DGR), Jūnāgadh, India
  • 3 AngloAmerican Crop Nutrients Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, India, New Delhi, India

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

    Polyhalite based POLY4, a multi-nutrient source containing potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, is increasingly recognized for its potential to improve crop yields and soil health in agricultural systems. It is also been considered as a feasible approach for addressing deficiency of potassium, calcium, and sulphur within a single application source. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of polyhalite based POLY4 application, either as a complete or partial substitute for traditional potassium fertilizer and gypsum supplement, on the enhancement of peanut (Arachis hypogaea ) growth and soil quality. An extensive field study was conducted from 2021 and 2022, employing ten distinct nutrient management treatments with three replications in a randomized complete block design. The findings of the study indicated that the application of polyhalite (POLY4) in conjunction with only NP fertilizers resulted in a higher yield advantage of around 150-200 kg ha -1 as compared to plots treated with NPK + gypsum (at 500 kg ha -1 ) and control plots. Application of polyhalite based fertilizer (POLY4) at a rate of 100% equivalent of K along with NP fertilizers resulted in a significant increase in pod yield by 5.3-12.8% over NPK + gypsum and control plots. Thus, enhanced crop yield led to increase of 4.88% gross returns and 4.28% net returns with the application of POLY4 (100%) + NP fertilizers over other treatments. Likewise, variable rates of conventional fertilizers along with POLY4 (100% recommended) +NP +gypsum atat310 kg/ha significantly enhanced linoleic acid content (38.5%), oleic acid content and oil content (48.1%) by reducing palmitic acid (11.96%) content in the groundnut seed. Interestingly, using POLY4 at the 50% recommended rate also resulted in yields that were comparable to those obtained with 100% NPK. Therefore, applying POLY4, a polyhalite fertilizer, in either a 100% or 50% equivalent of the essential K can be an effective way to increase the production of peanut crops and promote agricultural sustainability.

    Keywords: Gypsum, nodules, peanut, Pod yield, polyhalite based POLY4, Oleic Acid

    Received: 14 Jun 2024; Accepted: 18 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 K A, GA, Visha Kumari, Singh, BC, Awasthi, Mishra, Sukumaran, Venkatesh and Rajkumar. 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:
    Rajanna GA, Regional Research Station, Anantapur - 515701, India, Directorate of Groundnut Research (ICAR-DGR), Jūnāgadh, 362001, India
    Venugopalan Visha Kumari, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (ICAR), Hyderabad, India
    Vinod Kumar Singh, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (ICAR), Hyderabad, India

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