EFFECT OF INORGANIC AND BIO-FERTILIZERS ON PRODUCTIVITY AND NUTRIENTS UPTAKE IN COWPEA [VIGNA UNGUICULATA (L.) WALP]

A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2006 at Jobner (Rajasthan). The soil was loamy sand, having 8.1 pH, 1.20 dSm(-1) electrical conductivity, 0.13% organic carbon, 130.2 kg ha(-1) available nitrogen, 16.5 ha(-1) available phosphorus and 151.9 kg ha(-1) available potassium. The application of 75 % of recommended dose of fertilizer i.e. 15 kg N and 30 kg P2O5 ha(-1) along with seed inoculation by Rhizobium + PSB proved significantly superior over rest of treatment combinations and provided significantly higher pods per plant (8.23), seeds per pod (7.83), seed yield (8.85qha(-1)), straw yield (19.20q ha(-1)), nitrogen uptake (68.78kg ha(-1)), phosphorus uptake (8.85kg ha(-1)) and protein content (25.56 %) and increase in these characters was by 27.99, 27.94, 20.08, 22.06, 41.99, 42.37 & 16.71 % respectively over the control. Similarly, in seed inoculation combined i.e. Rhizobium + PSB treatment provided significantly higher pods per plant (8.52), seeds per pod (8.11), seed yield (9.20q ha(-1)), straw yield (20.12q ha(-1)), nitrogen uptake (75.29 kg ha(-1)), phosphorus uptake (9.32 kg/ha) and protein content (26.81 %) over rest of the treatments. The increase in their parameters was to the tune of 28.70, 28.93, 24.32, 23.51, 59.78, 37.46 & 32.85 % respectively over control.