Tillage and nutrient management for summer irrigated cotton preceded by sugarcane in Western Maharashtra

摘要

In India cotton is cultivated in 9 million hacters in varied agro-climatic conditions across nine major states. It employs directly and indirectly more than 60 million person in its production, processing and marketing. India today has 1569 textilemills comprising 1295 spinning and 274 composite mills. The industry provides employment for 10.40 lakh people and around 10 lakh people are absorbed in the powerloom and handloom sector. Cotton cultivation offers 200 Man days/ha of employment. Cotton requires large amounts of nitrogen, particularly under irrigation. Increased seed cotton yields with increased nitrogen applications are due to more and larger leaves, prolonged flower bud production, and more and larger bolls. However, a N response curvereaches a point where lint yield is maximised, and in some environments a reduction in yield or fibre quality can occur with if excessive N components of these reductions include delayed maturity, reduced ginning percentage, greater incidence of diseaseand greater attack to insect pests (Constable and Rochester, 1988; Hearn, 1975; Constable and Hearn, 1981).