Page 49 - Agroforestry system - book inner (final corrected) - 9.-3-21_Neat

National level e-symposium on “Agroforestry system for augmenting livestock
productivity and empowering resource poor rural farmers”

limits. Hence, the study was conducted to know the effect on nutrients on the biomass of fodder cowpea and
soil available nutrients.

Materials and methods
Field experiment was conducted at the Department of Agronomy, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai
during 2019 - 2020 to study the effect of domestic water on the yield of fodder cowpea and post harvest soil
available nutrients. The experiment on fodder cowpea variety Co 9 was laid in split plot design with irrigation
in the main plot and nutrients in the sub plot with three replications. The main plot treatments are T : Fresh
1
water, T : Sewage water and T : Fresh water + Sewage water alternatively and the sub plot treatments are N :
3
2
1
Control, N : Farm Yard manure alone, N : Farm Yard manure + NPK and N : NPK alone. The treatments were
2
3
4
imposed as per the treatment schedule and agronomic practices were carried out as per the crop production
guide of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Initial soil samples were collected from the experimental lay out
and post harvest soil sampling was collected for the first and the second crop of fodder cowpea, shade dried
and stored for analysis of soil available macro and micro nutrients.
Results and discussion

The mean green fodder yield of cowpea was found higher with application of sewage water followed
by application of fresh water and sewage water alternatively. Combination of organic and inorganic sources
of nutrients exhibited higher green fodder yield of cowpea. The dry matter yield of cow pea showed similar
pattern. The increase in growth parameters such as the plant height, leaf length, leaf width and internodal
length might be the reason for increase in green fodder yield and dry matter yield of fodder cowpea (Kumar
and Pandita, 2016.). Application of sewage water and nutrient application through organic and inorganic
sources of nutrients has improved the availability of soil nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. The nitrogen
availability is more than the soil initial nitrogen status despite of the crop removal. Cowpea is a leguminous
crop and capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen, hence there is a chance for increase in the availability of
nutrients in plants (Singh and Chauhan, 2009). Further, the soil available micro and macro nutrients might be
due to the presence of concentrated nutrients present in domestic sewage water (Prakash et al., 2010).

Hence, it is concluded that fodder cowpea responded well for the application of sewage water and
nutrients with respect to productivity and available soil macro and micronutrients. However, long term studies
are essential in order to know the changes on the soil fertility status and accumulation of heavy metal in soil.

References
Kumar, A. and Pandita, V. K. 2016. Effect of INM on seed yield and quality in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)
var. Pusa Sukomal. Legume Res., 39(3): 448-452.
Prakash, U. H. B., Parama, V. R. R., Rashmi, I and Atifa Munavere. 2010. Metals contamination in the soils of
peri urban Bangalore irrigated with sewage and industrial effluents. Journal of soils and crops, 1, 10-15.
Singh, N. I. and Chauhan, J. S. 2009. Response of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to organic manure and
inorganic fertilizer on growth and yield parameters under irrigated condition. Nature Sci., 8(5): 1545-
1550 (2009).

30 Institute of Animal Nutrition, Centre for Animal Production Studies, TANUVAS
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development