Vol. 11, Issue 11 (2022)

A field experiment on ‘Response of tillage and organic nutrient management on yield and physico-chemical and biological properties of soil under finger millet-French bean cropping system’ conducted at Agronomical Research Farm, Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi, and Jharkhand during 2020-21 and 2021-22. The experiment laid out in a split-plot design with three replication. The experiment consisted of four main plot treatments viz., conventional tillage – conventional tillage (CT – CT), conventional tillage – zero tillage (CT – ZT), zero tillage – conventional tillage (ZT – CT) and zero tillage – zero tillage (ZT - ZT) and subplot has four treatments with different sources of organic nutrient management viz., 100% N through FYM, 100% N through vermicompost, 50% N through FYM + 50% N through vermicompost and 75% N through FYM + 25% N through vermicompost. Yield of finger millet, green French bean and system were significantly found maximum in conventional tillage-conventional tillage. In case of organic nutrient 100% N through VC gave significant maximum value. Mechanical, physical, chemical and biological properties of soil were not affected by tillage and organic nutrient management. Maximum sand percent, bulk density, field capacity, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), available NPK and microbial (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes) count were found maximum in zero tillage – zero tillage (ZT- ZT) practice. In the subplot, 100% N through FYM recorded a higher sand percent, bulk density, field capacity, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), available NPK and microbial population (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes) after completion of the experiment. The holistic approaches of zero tillage – zero tillage practice and application of 100% N through FYM can be recommended as best practice to the farmers.