Impact of Jeevamrit and Ghanjeevamrit on soil properties and productivity of kiwi fruit

Kiwi fruit (Actinidia deliciosa Chev.) cultivation is gaining popularity in mid-hills of Himachal Pradesh. An experiment was conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra Solan, Himachal Pradesh to study the influence of natural farming system on crop yield, fruit weight, total sugar, physico-chemical and biological properties of soil and to find out the most effective doze of inputs viz., Ghanjeevamrit and Jeevamrit. We studied the application of jeevamrit and ghanjeevamrit with nutrient management practices in kiwifruit cropping sequence under natural farming system. Jeevamrit and ghanjeevamrit were prepared using desi-cow urine and dung. These natural farming ingredients are widespread among farmers for improving soil biology and productivity. Among different treatments, T5 (Ghanjeevamrit 2.0 t/ha + Jeevamrit 20 %) was found superior in terms of yield, crop equivalent yield, number of leaves, leaf area, pH, organic carbon, bulk density and microbial count. However, T2 (Ghanjeevamrit 1.5 t/ha + Jeevamrit 20 %) was found best in terms of available nitrogen, phosphorus and potash contents in the soil and it was statistically on par with T5. Intercrop combination of pea and mash was found superior in terms of crop equivalent yield, physico-chemical and biological properties of soil as compared to intercrop combination of rajmash and radish. Bacterial count varied from 14.56 x 107 to 23.38 x 107, fungal count from 2.36 x 104 to 5.70 x 104 while, actinomycetes from 5.36 x 104 to 8.70 x 104 among different treatments.