Fertiliser Best Management Practices in Pulses

摘要

Pulses are next to cereals in terms of their economic and nutritional importance as human food. Nutrient imbalance is one of the major abiotic constraints limiting productivity of pulses. The inbuilt unique mechanism of biological N2 fixation enables pulse crops to meet 80-90% of their N requirements, hence a small dose of 15-25 kg N/ha as starter dose is sufficient to meet out the requirement of most of the pulse crops. Phosphorus and sulphur requirement of pulses are higher than cereals due to their role in root proliferation, nodulation and protein synthesis. Enhanced use of fertilisers has created imbalance to the soil nutrients supply system resulting in lower productivity of pulses. Application of 45-60 kg P2O5 and 20-40 kg S/ha became part of fertiliser recommendation across the agro-climatic regions of the country. Pulses response to K application is location specific. Widespread deficiencies of micronutrients such as Zn, B, Mo and Fe have been reported in many parts of the country. Different fertiliser application practices like foliar application, seed inoculation, biofertilisers, and fertigation have been evolved for efficient application of costly fertiliser nutrients.