Performance of mung bean as influenced by different levels of fertilizers and cropping systems in the semi-arid region of India

Abstract

Mung bean being a leguminous crop is helpful in improving the soil properties. Since it is a pulse crop, it is deprived of proper fertilization. Hence, the study was aimed to determine the best fertilizer combination and cropping system for mung bean production. The experiment comprised eight treatments and three replications arranged in a splitplot design. The results revealed that yield components, namely, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/pod, 1000 seed weight, stover yield, seed yield, and biological yield in sole mung bean were significantly higher when mung bean is grown as an intercrop. While in the case of different fertilizer levels, the treatment with the combination of nanofertilizers and NPK fertilizers produced higher yield attributes than all other treatments. In contrast, the control (no fertilizer) produced lower yield characters. The study concludes that the combination of 50% recommended dose fertilizer + 50% nano NPK fertilizers + sole mung bean produced the highest yield and can be used for higher mung bean production.