Effect of Vermicompost and Fertility Levels on Productivity and Quality of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)is a valuable crop because it is grown for several purposes such as food for human being and feed for cattle and poultry birds. It is one of the first domesticated cereals of world agriculture which is a member of grass family grown intemperate climates globally. Its grain is also valued for smothering and cooling effect on the body for easy digestion and as a source of vitamin B complex. Besides these conventional uses, it is an important industrial crop used as raw material for beer, whisky for brewing industries. Each 100 g of barley grains comprise 10.6 gprotein, 2.1 gfat, 64.0 gcarbohydrate, 50.0 mg calcium, 6.0 mg iron, 31.0 mg vitamin B1, 0.1 mg vitamin B2 and 50.0 μg folate (Vaughan et al., 2006). Its β– glucans located in the cell wall of endosperm is useful in reducing the risk of cardio-vascular diseases. Thus, this crop is frequently being described as the most cosmopolitan of the crops and also considered as poor man’scrop because of the low input requirement and better adaptability to drought, salinity, alkalinity and marginal land (FAO, 2002). It is cultivated in almost all parts of the world. The major barley producing countries are China, Russia, Germany, USA, Canada, India, Turkey and Australia. In India, barley is mainly grown in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal and Bihar. In India, barley is grown over an area of 0.61 m ha with a production of 1.82 m tand yield of 2988 kg ha-1 (Anonymous, 2021). In Rajasthan, it is grown over an area of 0.26 m ha with a production of 0.96 m tand productivity of 3607 kg ha-1 (Anonymous, 2021). The average productivity of barley in the state is more than that of productivity in India but it is far behind in the attainable yield of 45-50 q ha-1 due to water and nutritional stresses. Its cultivation in India was suffered during green revolution period due to replacement of barley from marginal land and rainfed areas by more remunerative oilseed and pulses. The productivity of this crop could be increased by the use of different fertilizers but one of the major constraints in boosting up the barley production is the deteriorating effect on soil health due to the imbalanced and heavy use of chemical fertilizer. Soil health deterioration is the prime threat to Indian agriculture which is being aggravated with excessive use of fertilizers particularly in less responsive soils which have low organic matter content. The improper use of inorganic fertilizer has led to think about the use of FYM, vermicompost, poultry manure; bio-fertilizers etc. ingrowing areas for sustainable production system but organic manure alone cannot produce the sufficient food for present population and other uses. Under these circumstances, integrated use of organic manures with inorganic fertilizers shown promising results not only in sustaining the productivity but have also proved effective in maintaining soil health and enhanced nutrient use efficiency (Chesti et. al., 2013). Among 17 essential plant nutrients, N and P play the most important role in augmenting agriculture production which is required in the larger quantity of all the mineral nutrients absorbed by plant roots.