Impact of organic manures on soil health, yield and quality of pit planted sugarcane

An experiment was conducted at Organic Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari to study the effect of different proportion of organics on productivity of pit planted sugarcane during three consecutive years of 2013, 2014 and 2015. The experiment was conducted at fixed plot site with 8 set of organics treatments and 1 inorganic treatment as control (250:125:125 kg NPK/ha) arranged outside the experimental plot, laid down in randomized block design replicated thrice. Significantly higher millable cane height, number of internodes/ millable cane and single millable cane weight were recorded when crop nourished with 50% RDN each of vermi compost and castor cake. Further, application of vermi compost (50% RDN) along with neem cake or castor cake (50% RDN) were found equally effective and recorded significantly higher millable cane and trash yields. In organics vs inorganic analysis, application of 100 per cent RDF through inorganic fertilizers recorded significantly higher values of growth and yield parameters and yields of sugarcane crop. For producing higher and profitable cane yield of sugarcane, the crop should be fertilized with 100% RDF (250:125:125 NPK kg/ha) under south Gujarat condition. Further, it is also inferred that for organic production of sugarcane crop, application of 50% RDN through vermi compost and remaining 50% RDN either through castor cake or neem cake was found remunerative.