BALANCED NUTRITION APPROACH FOR HIGHER COWPEA PRODUCTIVITY USING SULPHUR AND MOLYBDENUM APPLICATION

Abstract

A field trial was carried out in the summer season of 2020 at the College Farm, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat to evaluate the balanced nutrition approach for higher cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) Productivity using sulphur and molybdenum application the experimental soil was clay in texture and slightly alkaline in nature. The experiment consisted of nine treatment combinations, namely: T1 – RDF, T2 – 25 kg S/ha, T3 – 50 kg S/ha, T4 – 500 ppm foliar Mo, T5 – 0.5 g Mo/kg seed, T6 – 25 kg S + 500 ppm Mo, T7 – 25 kg S + 0.5 g Mo/kg seed, T8 – 50 kg S + 500 ppm Mo and T9 – 50 kg S + 0.5 g Mo/kg seed. All treatments received a common application of RDF (20-40-00 NPK kg/ha). Sulphur was applied at the time of sowing, while the foliar application of molybdenum was carried out at 30 days after sowing (DAS) using 250 L of water per hectare. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. The application of T6 (25 kg S + 500 ppm Mo) significantly enhanced the growth and yield attributes of cowpea recording higher plant height (46.93 cm), number of branches per plant (4.51), nodules per plant (20.77), dry matter accumulation (35.50 g), pods per plant (12.28), seeds per pod (11.14), pod length (16.05 cm), seed yield (928 kg/ha) and stra w yield (2280 kg/ha). This treatment remained statistically at par with T7 (25 kg S + 0.5 g Mo/kg seed), T8 (50 kg S + 500 ppm Mo) and T9 (50 kg S + 0.5 g Mo/kg). The highest net return (₹36,912/ha) was achieved with T6, closely followed by T7 (₹36,584/ha), T9 (₹35,279/ha) and T8 (₹35,087/ha). In contrast, the maximum BCR (3.01) was observed under T7, which was followed by T6 (2.98), T9 (2.92), and T8 (2.86).