Studies on Integrated Nutrient Management on Yield and Quality Characters of Elephant Foot Yam (Amorphophallus paeonifolius (Dennst.) Nicolsan) cv. Gajendra

The investigation was carried out to study the intergrated nutrient management practices on yield and quality characters of Elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeonifolius (Dennst.) Nicolsan) cv. Gajendra. The field experiment was laid out in randomized block design with thirteen treatments with three replications and conducted at farmer’s field at Thirukkanur village, Villianur, Puducherry during the year 2020 with spacing 60 x 60 cm. Elephant foot yams corms were cut into 800 g for planting, after cutting corms were dipped in cow dung slurry and placed for drying. The treatments comprised of three levels of recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF - 80:40:100 Kg NPK ha-1) viz., 75%, 100% and 150% along with organic inputs viz., FYM (20 t ha-1), Vermicompost (5 t ha-1) and (CBF 5 Kg ha-1), organic manures of different combinations were applied as basal; where as recommended dose of fertilizer were also applied combined with organic manures. The observations were recorded at 190 days after planting. The results recorded maximum values for yield parameters viz., Culm girth (14.60 cm), Corm circumference (46.86 cm), Single Corm weight (48.21 Kg) plant-1, Yield plant-1 (2.42 Kg), Yield per plot (60.76 Kg), Total yield (40.15t ha-1) whereas quality parameters such as Moisture content (79.64 %), Starch content (18.02 %), Crude protein(6.11 %), Calciumoxalate (12.18 mg g-1), Total sugar content (2.62 mg g-1) and β carotene (0.19µg g-1). From the experiment, it was concluded that the integrated nutrient management viz., combination of vermicompost with 100 per cent RDF along with consortium biofertilizer were identified as the best treatment to increase quality and yield.