Impact of Integrated Nutrient Management on Soil Fertility and Nutrient Uptake of Ratoon Sugarcane

Importance of fertiliser use to enhance food production is well recognized from quite a few decades, though intensity of fertiliser use increased with wide regional variations in use and consumption. Application of higher doses of fertilisers by the farmers in the field without information on soil fertility status and nutrient requirement by the crop, causes adverse effect on soil and crop regarding both nutrient toxicity and deficiency either by over use or inadequate use [1]. Soil test based application of plant nutrients helps to realize higher response ratio as the nutrients are applied in proportion to the magnitude of the deficiency of a particular nutrient and the correction of the nutrient imbalance in soil helps to harness the synergistic effects of balanced fertilization [2]. , it is necessary to have information on the optimum doses of fertilisers and organic manures based on soil testing, nutrient uptake and efficiency of added nutrients by the crop to develop a guideline for judicious application of fertiliser under integrated nutrient management system. Sugarcane is an important agricultural commercial cash crop, is grown on 4.5 per cent of the total cropped area of the country. Ratoon is unique in the sense that a number of succeeding sugarcane crops is raised from a single planting which is an integral component of sugarcane production system. In India the sugarcane is cultivated on an area of 50.9 lakh hectares with cane production of 3576.7 lakh tonnes and sugar production of 263.42 lakh tonnes [3]. The average cane yield in the country is low when compared to yield level of other countries under similar conditions [4]. In India more than 50 to 55 per cent of sugarcane acreage is occupied by ratoons, which are often poor yielders than the plant cane due to non-adoption of improved agricultural technologies. However, its contribution to the total cane production is about 30 per cent. The productivity of ratoon crop is 10 to 30 per cent less than the plant crop of sugarcane. Thus, even a small improvement in ratoon crop would add considerably to overall sugarcane production and ratoon crop often gives better yield, quality and sugar recovery than plant cane [5]. In this context, the present investigation on impact of integrated nutrient management on soil fertility and nutrient uptake of ratoon sugarcane was taken up. Abstract A field experiment was conducted in Palani Chettipatti (P.C.Patti) village of Theni district, Tamil Nadu with test crop of Sugarcane (var. CO 86032) during 2013-2014 to study the impact of integrated nutrient management on soil fertility and nutrient uptake of ratoon sugarcane. The soil test based fertiliser application recorded the highest soil available N (298 kg ha -1 and 250 kg ha -1 ), P (58.6 ha -1 and 49 kg ha -1 ) and K (250 kg ha -1 and 213 kg ha -1 ) at grand growth stage and post-harvest stage of ratoon sugarcane and also recorded the highest nitrogen (487 kg ha -1 ) and potassium (357 kg ha -1 ) uptake at harvest stage. The rajshree sugars and chemicals Ltd. package and soil test based fertiliser application recorded the maximum total P uptake of 114.7 and 111.5 kg ha -1 , respectively. Combination of fertilisers along with other input like bio-compost and bio-fertilisers for ratoon sugarcane is suggested to improve both soil fertility and nutrient uptake.