Impact of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) on growth and yield parameters of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)

Sweet potato is a tuber crop cultivated for its sweet root tubers. The soils in Bihar are both fertile and productive. Nevertheless, intensive agricultural practices depleted the soil. The frequent application of chemical fertilizers caused soil compaction. The current experiment was conducted to examine the effects of integrated nutrient management (INM) on the growth and yield indices of sweet potato, considering the factors mentioned earlier. The field experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of Tirhut College of Agriculture, RPCAU, located in Dholi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, spanning two cropping seasons from 2023 to 2024. The experiment was set up in a split-plot design with three main plots and three sub-plot treatments. For sweet potato the main plots having chemical fertilizers namely F1: RDF (100%) - (100:60:100 kg N:P2O5:K2O)/ha, F2: RDF (125%) - (125:75:125 kg N:P2O5:K2O)/ha and F3: RDF (75%) - (75:45:75 kg N:P2O5:K2O)/ha. The sub plots having organic manures namely M1: FYM @ 15 t/ha, M2: Vermicompost @ 7.5 t/ha and M3: No organic manure. The treatments were allocated randomly in each plot. The findings indicated that chemical fertilizer application of F2: RDF (125%) - (125:75:125 kg N:P2O5:K2O)/ha along with organic manure application of M1: FYM @ 15 t/ha recorded significantly higher growth characteristics such as vine length, number of leaves and number of branches per plant, and yield parameters such as the number of tubers per plant, the length of the tuber and the girth of the tuber.