Abstract

A fixed plot field experiment was carried out during 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 at New Delhi, to evaluate the ‘‘effect of sunflower stover and nutrient management on pigeonpea under pigeonpea-sunflower cropping system’’. The results indicates that sunflower stover incorporation reduced the plant growth parameters viz., plant height, leaf area index (LAI), dry matter accumulation (DMA), crop growth rate (CGR), grain and stover yields, protein and nutrient contents of pigeonpea. Reduction in these parameters was more pronounced in the second year than the first. Application of P levels significantly increases growth attributes, grain and stover yields, protein and nutrient contents of pigeonpea over the control. Maximum plant height, LAI, DMA, CGR, grain yield (1.63 and 1.32 Mg/ha), protein content and nutrient status were recorded with the application of 30 kg P/ha followed by 15 kg P/ha + phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB). Significantly higher grain yield (1.17 Mg/ha) of pigeonpea was recorded due to residual effect of recommended dose (RD) of nitrogen and phosphorus (NP) given to sunflower, which was 10.4 and 14.7% higher over 50% RD of NP and control, respectively.

Key words: Growth, nutrient content, sunflower stover incorporation, quality.