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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/ijab.2454.7964.2216.3

Abstract

 A field experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of organic bio-inputs developed by an agricultural biotechnology research institute: for summer cucurbits in loamy sandy soil of Terai plains of Garhwal, irrigated by the Ganges:, during the summer season of 2013. The vegetables experimented on were: Lagenaria siceraria  (bottlegourd) and Momordica charantia (bittergourd). The experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Patanjali Bio Research Institute (PBRI),located in Padartha village, Haridwar district, Uttarakhand, India. The experimental design had one control, four treatments and two crops - bitter gourd and bottle gourd The experiment was laid out in a modified Latin Square design (LSD): with four treatment plots replicated twice, for each crop.. The control plots were replicated four times for both the crops... Seed was procured from a neighbouring village agro input outlet, to simulate actual farming conditions. Two experiments were conducted: the first around germination, and the second around yield of vegetables. In the germination experiment: all the experimental plots received soil treatment of granular compost mixed with amino acid, humic acid, cow urine, and some nutrients. The four soil treatments, consisted of increasing dosage of powdered organic compost ,inoculated with beneficial microbes, mixed with amino acids, with added micronutrients. Using the statistical test of significance of proportions, all the treatments, and the control plots showed significance. However higher dosage seems to have had relatively lesser germination count. Beyond a certain limit, addition of these biological inputs could be counterproductive for germination of summer cucurbits. A pest attack by red pumpkin beetle (Aulacophora foveicollis), was successfully treated with neem oil extract. In the yield experiment, all the four treatments received organic NPK. The first treatment (T1) added amino acid liquid; the second treatment ( T2) added vitamin, amino acid growth promoter and Humic acid; the third treatment ( T3) added amino acid liquid, vitamin and amino acid based growth promoter, and the fourth treatment (T4) added amino acid liquid, Humic acid, vitamins and amino acid based growth promoter. One way ANOVA (analysis of variance), did not show significance at 10% level of significance. There was a big range of variation in the yields of treatment plots. However incremental analysis, of treatments, again seemed to reveal that the lowest combination of inputs had the highest yields, for both the crops. The preliminary learning seems to indicate that the agricultural economics “Law of Diminishing returns” seems to hold?

 

Keywords : Cucurbits; Germination Analysis; Vegetable Yield Analysis; Biofertiliser; Biopesticide; Organic Farming; Sandy Loamy Soil; Terai; Gangetic Plains in Garhwal; Bitter Gourd; Bottle Gourd; Summer Crop.

Corresponding Author : Vijay Sharma*