INFLUENCE OF INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT ON COWPEA GROWTH, YIELD AND SOIL FERTILITY UNDER IRRIGATED CONDITIONS

Present study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy of integrated nutrient management system for improving crop growth, yield of cowpea and enhancing soil fertility under irrigated conditions. The experiment was carried out using randomized block design with three levels of NPK, Rhizobium, and Vermicompost. The treatments were replicated three times and were allocated at randomized block design (RBD). The results indicated that the treatment comprised of 100% RDF + Rhizobium 20 gm kg-1 was found to be the best treatment in increasing plant height, pod length, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pods and weight of pods. The effect of integrated nutrient management was found to be significant for nitrogen, potassium, bulk density, number of pods, weight of the pods and number of seeds per pod. However, a non-significant impact was found to be associated with pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, water holding capacity and phosphorus. Thus this study indicated that integrated nutrient management is the better option for improving the growth and yield of cowpea and soil quality.