Expression of Quantitative and Qualitative Traits in Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Grown through Organic Production Intervention in Eastern Indian Plateau

Abstract

The investigation was conducted during two consecutive rabi seasons of 2019-20 and 2020-21 at the Organic Experimental Farm of Ranchi campus of the university by employing eight traditionally grown potato varieties of the region viz., V1 (Kufri Jyoti), V2 (Siwan), V3 (C-40), V4 (2236), V5 (Ultimatum), V6 (Sathi), V7 (Lal Gulab) and V8 (Nainital). They were grown independently through four organic growing conditions namely, C1 (Conventional Farming) where only Farm Yard Manure (FYM) @ 10 t.ha-1 was applied, C2 (Bulky Organic Manure) where along with the FYM @ 10 t.ha-1, vermicompost @ 20 tha-1 was applied, C3 (Vivek Krishi) where along with the FYM @ 10 t.ha-1, enriched Sanjeevani (10%) was applied, and C4 (Absolute Control) where no organic input was used. Four separate field experiments based upon the predesigned growing conditions were intended by adopting Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) experimental design by assigning thrice replication of each of the eight varieties of the crop. Different growth and yield attributes along with the quality contributing traits were studied and found to be highly influenced by different organic growing conditions. Most of the studied growth and yield attributing traits of potato were highly influenced by the growing condition (C2) where along with the FYM @ 10 t.ha-1, Vermicompost @ 20 t.ha-1 was applied resulting higher yield (34.13 tha-1) as estimated in V4 (2236). However, almost all quality attributing traits were highly influenced by the growing condition (C3) ensuing higher starch content (31.86% in V6) where along with the FYM @ 10 t.ha-1 a liquid organic formulation Enriched Sanjeevani (10%) was applied. The study revealed that potato is highly responsive to different organic growing conditions especially bulky organic manure (vermicompost) for higher yield and Vivek Krishi for proximate quality traits expression under the organic growing condition of the south Chhota Nagpur region of the eastern Indian plateau.