Affiliation:
1. 1 Sugarcane Breeding Institute Coimbatore India
2. 2 Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Department of Agronomy Coimbatore India
Abstract
A farming system experiment was conducted under dryland conditions in the western zone of Tamil Nadu with cropping, agroforestry, pigeons, goats, buffaloes and farm pond as the enterprise combination from July 2000 to March 2002. The cropping system of sorghum (fodder) + cowpea (fodder) followed by chickpea + coriander was supplied with either composted goat manure or composted buffalo manure at 100 or 75% of the production levels in order to investigate the effect of the source and amount of manures from the livestock enterprises linked in the system on cropping. The application of composted buffalo manure at 100% production level resulted in higher yield attributes, yield and returns in the second year, though the application of the recommended dose of fertilizers gave higher values for the same parameters in the first year, due to the buildup of nutrients over time. Higher yields of chickpea and coriander also indicated the favourable residual effect of the organic manures. This treatment ranked best with the highest benefit to cost ratio among the treatments imposed.
Subject
Agronomy and Crop Science
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