Nutrient Use Efficiency and Productivity of Field Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Influenced by Combined Nitrogen and Sulphur Application

Abstract

Background: Field pea usually grows in the cold areas of the world unlike the other major pulses of the world. India is one of the largest producers of field pea (8.11 lakh tonnes) in the world on an area of 6.06 lakh hectares (FAOSTAT, 2019). The productivity of field pea is 13.37 q/ha which is quite low compared to France (40.4 q/ha), Italy (30.99 q/ha), Japan (24.8 q/ha) and USA (23.8 q/ha) (FAOSTAT, 2019). One of the reason for low productivity of field pea in India besides other aspects is imbalanced use of fertilizers. However, to apply chemical fertilizers especially nitrogen causes environment pollution. Thus the present study was undertaken to investigate combined effect of sulphur and nitrogen on field pea to increase the productivity and to reduce nitrogen rate. Methods: Field experiment were carried out at Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Kashmir, India during Rabi 2016-17 and 2017-18 under rainfed conditions. The experiment was laid out in factorial RBD with three levels of nitrogen (N0= 0 kg/ha, N1 = 15 kg/ha, N2 = 30 kg/ha) and four levels of sulphur (S0 = 0 kg/ha, S1 = 15 kg/ha, S2 = 30 kg/ha, S3= 45 kg/ha) with three replications. Field pea variety Shalimar Pea-1 was sown with row to row spacing of 30 cm. During both the years, the crop was sown on 2nd week of October and harvested at physiological maturity. Result: Application 30 kg S/ha and 15 kg N/ha recorded significantly higher seed yield of field pea. Similarly the agronomic efficiency and yield attributing characters were also found significantly higher with application of 30 kg S/ha and 15 kg N/ha. Further increasing levels of sulphur and nitrogen application do not significantly improved seed yield of field-pea. Similar trend was recorded in yield contributing character and agronomic efficiency.