Vol. 12, Issue 7 (2023)

Author(s):
Sehrish Jan, M Maqbool Mir, Umar Iqbal, Javed A Wani, FA Khan, MD Shah and Sajad Baba

Abstract:
Fertigation is a method of fertilizer application in which an optimum dose of fertilizer is supplied to the plant along with irrigation water through the drip irrigation system thereby reducing leaching losses, groundwater pollution, labor and input cost and ensuring integrated nutrient management besides bringing down the cost of production. This study was conducted with an aim of working out the economics of different doses of fertigation applied to cherry cv. Regina thus, to find the most economically feasible dosage of fertigation treatment for high density plantation system under temperate climatic conditions. The present investigation was conducted in the Experimental fields of Division of Fruit Science, SKUAST, Kashmir during the year 2021 and 2022. 8 year old trees of cherry cv. Regina grafted on Gisela-5 rootstock, were selected for experimentation. The fifteen treatments used were replicated thrice in Randomized Complete Block Design. The benefit cost ratio (BCR)/per rupee return (PRR) for different fertigation treatments was worked out by considering the rates of fertilizers, quantity used etc. The maximum net returns of ₹ 8,79,470.5 and ₹ 9,05,816.90 were obtained from treatment T₆ (125% of reference dose of NPK at weekly interval) with benefit cost ratio of 3.52 and 3.57 during the year 2021 and 2022 respectively. Lowest benefit- cost ratio (1.88 and 1.97) was recorded in T₁₅ during both the years. Higher benefit-cost ratio may be attributed to the fact that T₆ offered the most optimum dose to the plants which resulted in highest yield thereby contributing to the overall BC ratio.