Pongamia seed cake as a valuable source of plant nutrients for sustainable agriculture

Osman, M and Wani, S P and Balloli, S S and Sreedevi, T K and Rao, C S and D'Silva, E (2009) Pongamia seed cake as a valuable source of plant nutrients for sustainable agriculture. Indian Journal of Fertilisers, 5 (2). pp. 25-26.

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Abstract

Pongamia, a multipurpose leguminous tree containing non-edible oil, grows widely in India. Oil extracted from the seeds of Pongamia is used as energy source as well as in tanneries while the cake (a byproduct after extracting oil) was found to be rich in all plant nutrients in general and nitrogen (4.28%) and sulfur (0.19%) in particular. Both nitrogen and sulfur were found to be deficient in 100 and 80%, respectively, in soil samples from farmers' fields in Powerguda village of Adilabad district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Use of Pongamia seed cake as a source of plant nutrients for maize, soyabean and cotton was found beneficial in participatory research and development trials on farmers' fields. Further, application of critically deficient micronutrients such as zinc and boron and secondary nutrient sulfur increased crop yields by 16.7 and 19% in soyabean and cotton, respectively. In addition, B:C ratios of 5.03, 1.81 and 2.04 were obtained for soyabean, maize and cotton, respectively, with use of cake as a source of N, however it needed higher initial investment.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Others > Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
Depositing User:	Library ICRISAT
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2011 08:08
Last Modified:	25 Aug 2011 08:19
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/424
Official URL:
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	UNSPECIFIED
Links:	Author

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