EFFECT OF FERTILITY LEVELS AND FOLIAR NUTRITION ON PROFITABILITY, NUTRIENT CONTENT AND UPTAKE OF COWPEA [VIGNA UNGUICULATA (L.) WALP]

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2009 on loamy sand soil to study the effect of fertility levels and foliar nutrition on cowpea. The experiment consisted of four treatments of fertility levels (control, 50, 75 and 100% RDF) and four treatments of foliar spray (water spray, 2% urea, 2% DAP and 2% KCl spray at branching and flowering) thereby making sixteen treatment combinations tested in factorial randomized block design with four replications. Results indicated that application of 100% RDF significantly increased the seed yield, net returns and total uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium over preceding levels of fertility. Whereas, protein content in seed, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in seed and straw and potassium content in straw increased significantly upto 75% RDF and remained at par with 100% RDF. Results further indicated that foliar sprays of 2% DAP, 2% urea and 2% KCl remained at par and resulted in higher seed yield, net returns, protein content, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in seed and straw and total uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium over water sprayed control.\