Subsoil manuring: A new technology to improve the productivity of dry land sodic soils

Field studies on subsoil manuring in dry land for hybrid maize and cotton crops were conducted at farmer’s field in Purigaali village of Mandya district and Krishi Vignana Kendra (KVK), Chamarajanagara, respectively in sodic soils with an objective to study the influence of deep ripping and incorporation of amendments and organic manures with nutrient enrichment through subsoil manuring on growth and yield of maize and cotton. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with eleven treatments comprises combinations of RDF, deep ripping (up to 45-50 cm), organic manures (poultry manure, sheep manure, FYM and press mud) with or without gypsum (based on gypsum requirement for sodic soil) and replicated thrice. Subsoil ripper with manuring tank was fabricated at Mandya as per the requirement and was tested in sodic soil for its deep ripping and manuring efficiency then in experimental plots subsoil manuring with different organic manures was done through ripper with manuring tank one month before sowing of crops. Experimental results indicated that, deep ripping up to 45-50 cm and subsoil manuring of poultry manure along with gypsum and RDF (T8) recorded significantly higher grain yield of maize (45.51 q ha-1) and subsoil manuring of pressmud along with RDF through deep ripping (T5) recorded significantly higher seed cotton yield (25.29 q ha-1) which was on par with T4 (24.06 q ha-1) where poultry manure with RDF was applied through deep ripping. However, deep ripping and application of gypsum and RDF (T3) recorded lowest yields of maize and cotton (24.43 and 18.15 q ha-1, respectively).