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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp2 (2026): Recent Advances in Agriculture

Effect of organic sources on soil microbes and soil enzymes activity in finger millet under a finger millet - horse gram cropping system

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.14195
Submitted
23 February 2026
Published
29-06-2026

Abstract

The study finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) is originally native to the Ethiopian highland and was introduced into India approximately 4000 years ago. Intensive cultivation of finger millet has caused a decline in soil fertility and reduced microbial activity in semi- arid regions of India. Therefore, the field investigation was carried out during kharif, 2021 and 2022 to find the effect of different combinations of composts and fertilisers on microbes and enzymes activity. The experiment was laid out in randomised block design (RBD) with 12 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments consisted of different combination of recommended nitrogen (RN) doses that are supplied through T1 - control, T2  - 100 % recommended dose of fertilisers (RDF), T3 - 75 % recommended nitrogen (RN) through chemical fertilisers RN (CF) + 25 % RN green leaf manure compost (GLMC), T4 - 75 % RN (CF)  + 25 % RN groundnut oil cake (GOC), T5 - 75 % RN (CF)  + 25 % RN pressmud compost (PMC), T6 - 75 % RN (CF) +25 % RN coir pith compost (CPC), T7 - 50 % RN (CF) + 25 % RN (GLMC) + 25 % RN (GOC) , T8 - 50 % RN (CF) + 25 % RN (PMC) + 25 % RN (CPC), T9 - 50 % RN (CF) + 25 % RN (GLMC) + 25 % RN (PMC), T10 - 50 % RN (CF) + 25 % RN (GLMC) + 25 % RN (CPC), T11 - 50 % RN (CF) + 25 % RN (GOC) + 25 % RN (PMC) and T12 - 50 % RN (CF) + 25 % RN (GOC) + 25 % RN (CPC). Finger millet cv. CO 14 was grown with proper cultural practices. The results revealed that T7 recorded the significantly highest bacterial populations of 22.7, 29.9 and 23.8 (colony forming unit (CFU) × 10-6) at 30 days after transplanting (DAT), 60 DAT and at post-harvest soil respectively. This treatment also significantly increased the fungal and actinomycetes population, thus following a similar trend. The activities were also recorded under (T7) at 30 DAT, 60 DAT and at post-harvest soil were 47.0, 64.2 and 54.6 respectively.

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