EFFECT OF USING VARYING LEVEL OF NPK AND BIOFERTILIZERS ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH AND YIELD OF OKRA (ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS (L.) MOENCH)

Abstract

Indiscriminate use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides has caused health hazards to human, besides deteriorating the soil, groundwater and environment ecology. Biofertilizers holds a vast potential for supply of major plant nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus more economically. However, biofertilizers if supplement with the chemical fertilizer they can reduce the need of chemical fertilizers by 25-50%. Thus, there is need to integrate and balance supply of chemical fertilizers, organic manures and biofertilizers for sustaining productivity and soil health and also supplementing a part of chemical fertilizer requirement through these resources. There are considerable scientific data, which shows that combined application of chemical fertilizer and biofertilizers increase yield and influence quality attributes in several vegetables, besides saving of chemical fertilizers (Shankaranarayaan et al., 1995; Verma et al., 1997; Bahadur and Manohar, 2001, Bahadur et al., 2003).