Amendment of Acidic Soil with Lime and Manure for Enhancing Fertility, Nutrient Uptake and Yield of Wheat-Mungbean-Monsoon Rice in the Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain

Soil acidic conditions and the decline in soil fertility are among the critical factors that constraint higher crop productivity in the Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain (OHPP), Bangladesh. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of lime and manure on soil fertility, nutrients and yields of wheat, mungbean and rice. Experiments were done at Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) farm and farmer field over two consecutive years with the cropping pattern, namely wheat-mungbean-transplanted (T.) aman rice/monsoon rice. The varieties used were Bijoy for wheat, BARI mung6 for mungbean and Bina dhan7 for T. aman rice. There were nine treatment combinations with three lime levels (0, 1 and 2 ton dololime ha-1) and three manure treatments (poultry manure, farmyard manure and no manure) with three replications. The rate of poultry manure was 3 t ha-1 and that of farmyard manure was 5 t ha-1. Nutrients from manure sources were supplemented with chemical fertilizers to adjust recommended dose. Lime was added to the first crop for entire two crop cycles and manures were applied to the first crop of each crop cycle. Soil pH increased by 0.5-1.11 units, the higher values were observed with higher rates of lime application. Soil organic matter (SOM) increased slightly due to manure treatment. Soil phosphorus availability increased, zinc and boron availability decreased, but the potassium and sulphur availability remained almost unchanged after liming. Application of lime and manure had significant positive effect on the yield of wheat, and their positive residual effects on mungbean and T. aman rice. The effect of 1 t lime ha-1 was comparable with that of 2 t lime ha-1. Between two manures, poultry manure performed better than FYM on crop yields. The trend of plant nutrient uptake by wheat, mungbean and rice followed the trend of these crops yield increase, i.e., crops that were able to uptake more nutrients shown higher yields. The treatment combinations with 1 t ha-1 lime and 3 t ha-1 poultry manure produced an average 35-55% yield benefit over control for the first crop (wheat) and 41-43% yield benefit for the third crop (T. aman rice). This study suggests that dololime @ 1 t ha-1 coupled with poultry manure @ 3 t ha-1 or FYM @ 5 t ha-1 would be an efficient practice for better soil acidic condition, soil fertility and productivity of crops in the Himalayan piedmont soil of Bangladesh.