Comparative study of vermicompost and inorganic fertilizers on micronutrient availability, growth and yield parameters of pigeon pea INTRODUCTION
Pigeon pea is one of the important pulses crop in India contributing 16% of total pulses production. It is the second most important pulse grown after chick pea covering an area of 4.42 m ha (Mula et al., 2014). In most of the country, pigeon pea is consumed as a split dal besides other uses of various plant parts where it is commonly known as arhar in India. It is known that pigeon pea has high content of protein ( 20-22 % ), therefore it is used in regular diet supplementing various highly nutritious cereal crop (Saxena et al., 2010 ). But it is mostly grown as an intercrop with maize, groundnut, castor, green gram, cotton ( Kumar et al., 2014 ).
Pigeon pea can also be use as a fodder , food and fuel crop . It has a multi-functional unit other than its high protein rich energy dal, it can also be in other economical functions like basket making, huts and fences made from branches and stems of pigeon pea etc. Due to such reasons it is more sustainable. But the present pigeon pea production in India cannot meet the needs of domestic
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Some reasons for the decrease in production of pigeon pea is due to decreasing soil fertility. And the use of chemical fertilizer is one of the major reasons for the depletion of soil fertility. So, some changes in the way of crops cultivation need to be there for our futures faith. Among those changes, substitution of inorganic fertilizer by organic fertilizer, integrated nutrient management (INM), integrated pest management (IPM), integrated weed management (IWM) are some of the methods. Among all organic manures , vermicompost is considered as one of the most effective organic