@article{icrisat6623,
       publisher = {Taylor \& Francis},
            year = {2013},
           title = {Balanced and integrated nutrient management for enhanced and economic food production: case study from rainfed semi-arid tropics in India},
           pages = {1--16},
          author = {G Chander and S P Wani and K L Sahrawat and P J Kamdi and C K Pal and D K Pal and T P Mathur},
         journal = {Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science},
        keywords = {soil degradation; micronutrients; vermicompost; productivity; resilience},
             url = {http://oar.icrisat.org/6623/},
        abstract = {Soil degradation in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) is mainly responsible for low crop and water productivity. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states in India, the soil analyses of farmers' fields revealed widespread deficiencies of S (9?96\%), B (17?100\%) and Zn (22?97\%) along with that of P (25?92\%). Soil organic C was deficient in 7?84\% fields indicating specifically N deficiencies and poor soil health in general. During on-farm evaluations in rainy seasons 2010 and 2011, the soil test based addition of deficient nutrient fertilizers as balanced nutrition (BN) increased crop yields by 6?40\% (benefit to cost ratios of 0.81?4.28) through enhanced rainwater use efficiency. The integrated nutrient management (INM), however, decreased the use of chemical fertilizers in BN by up to 50\% through on-farm produced vermicompost and recorded yields at par or more than BN with far better benefit to cost ratios (2.26?10.2). Soybean grain S and Zn contents improved with INM. Applied S, B, Zn and vermicompost showed residual benefits as increased crop yields for succeeding three seasons. Hence, results showed INM/BN was economically beneficial for producing more food, while leading to resilience building of SAT production systems.}
}