Influence of soil and foliar nutrition with different organic and inorganic sources on summer pearlmillet under semi-arid tropics of India

Pearlmillet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) is an important drought tolerant hardy millet crop grown in the arid and semi arid regions of the world. In India, Pearlmillet is cultivated in marginal to low fertile sandy or sandy loam soil having nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency, which significantly decreased its productivity. Moreover, response of crops to high nutrient levels in low fertile soil is another constraint which requires more attention due to leaching and volatilization problems. Foliar fertilization along with soil application of nutrients have potential to meet nutrient requirements of crops at critical growth stages and achieving productivity. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at Demonstration farm, Krushi Vigyan Kendra, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Deesa, Gujarat during summer season of 2019, 2020 and 2021 to assess the performance of soil and foliar nutrition with different sources on summer pearlmillet. The result revealed that, all the growth traits, yield components, grain and straw yield of summer pearlmillet increased significantly with application of 100% RDF which remained at par with 75% RDF + foliar spray of 2% WSF 19:19:19, 75% RDF + foliar spray of 4% jivamrut and 75% RDF + foliar spray of 4% panchgavya at 30 & 45 DAS on pooled basis, respectively. Similar trend was also recorded in nitrogen and phosphorous content and uptake of summer pearlmillet. The current study has explored the potential of foliar nutrition along with soil application of nutrients through different organic and inorganic sources.