Response of Salt-Tolerant Rice Varieties to Biocompost Application in Sodic Soil of Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Sodic soils have immense productivity potential, if managed through proper technology interventions. Biocompost is prepared by composting pressmud (a sugar industry byproduct) received from cane juice filtration and spent wash received from distilleries through microbial aerobic decomposition and can be used to reclaim sodic soils. Field experiments were conducted during the wet season of 2011 and 2012 to study the effect of incorporation of biocompost in sodic soil with four treatments: T1—Control, T2—Biocompost at 2 t ha, T3—Biocompost at 4 t ha and T4—Biocompost at 6 t ha. The two promising salt tolerant rice varieties preferred by farmers, Narendra usar 3 and NDR 359 were used as test crops, which can produce yields ranging between 2 4 t ha in soil having a pH range of 9.2 to 10.5. Among the different doses of biocompost tested, application of biocompost at 6 t ha registered highest yields, enabled by a higher biomass, ear bearing tiller (EBT), and grain fertility in both varieties. Narendra usar 3 was more responsive to treatments even at lower doses of biocompost than NDR 359, but NDR 359 yielded slightly higher than Narendra usar 3 in all treatments. Soil health was also improved evidently on better fertility and low soil pH and EC at harvest. Thus, biocompost can be considered as a commercially viable, environmentally acceptable and practically enforceable option for improving the crop productivity and soil fertility status.