Vol. 12, Issue 10 (2023)

Author(s):
Ambruthavarshini, DV Naveen, V Varalakshmi, HB Arpitha, HC Arpitha and BT Darshan

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted at the College of Sericulture, Chintamani, Chikkaballapur District, Karnataka, India. The insect species used for the enrichment of composting in the experiment are silkworm pupae, silkworm moth, uzifly and fruit fly, the compost was prepared for 90 days and used to study their influence on finger millet. In the field experiment conducted, with 11 treatments which are replicated thrice, all the treatments with enriched insect biomass compost performed well. But the higher plant height (46.33, 71.67, 113.33 cm at 30, 60 days and at harvest, respectively) were noticed in treatment T₄ which received 100% N equivalent of FYM through silkworm pupae compost and the higher grain and straw yield (28.91 q ha^-1 and 38.01 q ha^-1) was observed in T₄ treatment. Significantly higher nitrogen uptake (86.84 kg ha^-1) by grain and straw (79.06 kg ha^-1) was recorded in treatment imposed of 100% N equivalent of FYM through silkworm pupae enriched compost (T₄). Higher phosphorus and potassium uptake by grain and straw (P uptake 13.97 and 12.29 kg ha^-1) and (K uptake-78.76 and 153.05 kg ha^-1) was noticed in treatment imposed of 100% N equivalent of FYM through silkworm pupae enriched compost (T₄), on par with T₆ received 100% N equivalent of FYM through silkworm moth enriched compost. The lower uptake was recorded in T₁ control.