Effect of Organic Foliar Nutrition on Performance and Production Potential of Mungbean [Vigna radiata L.]

Background: Foliar spray of nutrients offers a best way to accelerate crop growth and boost up productivity of mungbean under irrigated conditions to meet out the demand raised by ever increasing population of our country. The study was framed to investigate physiochemical and biological properties of fermented fish waste extract (FFWE) and its effects on productivity performance in mungbean. Methods: The organic liquid FFWE was characterized for its physiochemical and biological properties in the laboratory. Field experiments were conducted during Kharif 2019 and 2020 in mungbean to study the effect of FFWE as foliar spray on growth, yield, quality and economics. Treatments consisted of foliar spray of different concentrations of FFWE (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 %) compared with 1% urea and control. The treatments were replicated four times in a randomized block design. Result: Laboratory analysis showed that fermented fish waste extract contains considerable amount of essential nutrients namely nitrogen (1.87% ), phosphorus (0.49%), potassium (0.93%), calcium (0.54%), magnesium (0.26%), sulphur (0.04%), copper (3.1 ppm), zinc (38.2 ppm), manganese (4.8 ppm) and iron (118 ppm). The microbial population viz., total bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes in FFWE were found to be 196 +/- 1.8, 11 +/- 0.06 and 203 +/- 0.87 (CFU/mL), respectively. Field experiments revealed that 2.0% FFWE foliar spray at flowering stage and 15 days after first spray in mungbean found to improve the plant height, (40.8 cm) dry matter production (1770 kg/ha), leaf chlorophyll (SPAD value 40.0), number of pods per plant (28.3), seeds per pod (9.9), grain yield (665 kg/ha) and grain protein (23.4%). Economics of foliar nutrition showed that foliar spray of 2.0% FFWE gave higher net return of Rs. 24057/- per ha and benefit cost ratio of 2.30. Thus, it could be concluded that foliar spray of 2.0% fermented fish waste extract could be considered as an excellent source of organic liquid manure for enhancing the productivity of mungbean.