Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL FERTILISER, VERMICOMPOST AND FARM YARD MANURE ON TOMATO PLANT GROWTH AND SOIL FERTILITY

A.A. Raut, P.S. Sarolkar and G.R. Pathade

Abstract

A healthy soil environment is necessary to produce the desired crops, which means it should have all the essential nutrients. Nutrients are used in large quantities in growing plants and therefore need to be replaced regularly to maintain productivity and for this purpose fertilizers are used in the fields. Chemical fertilizers are essential to increase proper growth and yield of crops and act as catalysts in providing nutrients to plants for better growth and yield. On the other hand, fertilizers can threaten our ecosystems, soil, plants, human and animal lives. Despite past gains in crop production through chemical fertilizers, recent observations of stagnant or declining yields have raised concerns about the long-term sustainability of crop production. In the long term, they also damage the natural composition of the soil, leading to unsustainable crop production. Of course, chemical fertilizers add nutrients to the soil, but they don’t add anything else. Plants need more than just nutrients to survive. They also need organic matter and living organisms. Thus, the integrated use of organic and inorganic nutrient sources will not only supply essential nutrients to the soil, but may also have a certain synergistic interaction to increase their effectiveness and thereby reduce environmental risks. Nutrients from chemical fertilizers improve initial crop establishment, while nutrients from mineralization of organic manure support yield later. In the present experiments, pot experiment was conducted to study the comparative effect on growth of tomato plant and its soil fertility. The soil parameters and growth of plant were observed and studied. The studies show positive impacts on farm yard manure and vermicompost on the soil as well as on the growth of tomato plant as compared to the chemical fertilizer. The healthy growth of plant with more green leaves and flowering and fruits were observed with application of farm yard manure and vermicompost. It concludes application of farm yard manure and vermicompost is effective and better for the healthy growth of tomato plant and fertility of the soil.