Available Nutrients and Response of Lentil (Lense esculentd) to Boron Application in Rainfed Upland Soils of Ranchi

摘要

Occurrence of B deficiency, by and large, has been reported from acid soils of eastern part of the country covering the states of Assam, Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand (Sarkar and Singh 2003). Among the soils occurring in topo-sequence of Jharkhand, the uplands are suitable for pulses cultivation and occupy an area of over 3 lakh hectares with very poor yield of 279 kg ha~(-1). Among various constraints leading to low productivity of pulses, inadequate and imbalanced plant nutrition assumes greatsignificance. Boron has a marked effect on plants from the stand point of both nutrition as well as toxicity. The range between the level of soil boron resulting in deficiency and that causing toxicity is relatively small. Both boron deficiency and excess will result in reduction in crop yield or impairment of crop quality. Boron helps in the biosynthesis of protein in plant. Benefits of furrow application of small dose of lime to pulses (rhizosphere application) as compared to broadcast was observed byMathur et al. (1991) in acidic soils of Jharkhand. The present investigation was carried out to assess available nutrients status and also the effect of boron and lime application on lentil yields, B uptake and protein content in grains in B-deficient upland soils of Ranchi.