Impact of Organic and Chemical Farming on Soil Health and Production in Finger Millet

Deterioration of soil health, expensive and unnecessary inputs, water-intensive/water-pollutive, lethal and ecologically harmful farming practices in chemical farming do no good to agricultural advancement, and to public health. To reduce ill effects of chemical farming, a long term experiment is conducting to study the effect of organic manures and chemical fertilizers on yield, quality and soil health in finger millet since kharif 2013 at Agricultural Research Station, Perumallapalle, ANGRAU, Andhra Pradesh, India with a test variety Vakula. The experiment consists of two treatments viz., organic farming and chemical farming. Recommended dose of manures and fertilizers were applied to organic and inorganic plots, respectively in each season. The data on yield parameters, yield, quality and soil properties was collected and statistically analyzed with paired t test by using SPSS 2.0. The results revealed that during kharif 2022, significantly the highest grain yield (31.62 q ha-1), straw yield (84.06 q ha-1), number of tillers/plant (1.9), were recorded with chemical farming. The highest N, P and K uptake by plant at flowering was also recorded with chemical farming during both Kharif and Rabi seasons. Regarding quality, high protein, total phenol and tannin content had been recorded with organic farming. Build up of organic carbon, available nitrogen and phosphorus were noticed in post harvest soil when compared initial values (kharif 2013.). Soil enzymatic activity and microbial population was also higher with application of organic manures and biofertilizers than chemical fertilizers. The grain yield of organic farming plot was comparable with chemical farming after nine years of experimentation.