Liming and Soil Amendments for Acidity Regulation and Nutrients Uptake by Potato-Mungbean-Rice Cropping Pattern in the Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain

Soil acidity and lower soil fertility are the key issues that constraint higher crop yield in the Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain area of Bangladesh. The study evaluated the effect of lime and manure on yield of crops in a cropping pattern, potato-mungbean-transplanted aman (TA) rice. Experiments were conducted at Agricultural Regional Station (ARS), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) farm and farmer’s field under Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila, Thakurgoan district, over two consecutive years. Crop varieties were Cardinal for potato, BARI mung6 for mungbean and Bina dhan7 for TA rice. There were nine treatment combinations with three lime levels (0, 1 and 2 t dololime ha-1) and three manure treatments (poultry manure, farm yard manure and control) with three replications. The rate of poultry manure was 3 t ha-1 and that of FYM was 5 t ha-1. Lime was added to the first crop for entire two crop cycles and manures were applied to the first crop of each crop cycle. Application of lime and manure had significant positive effect on the yield of potato and consequently positive residual effects on mungbean and TA rice. An average 45-59% yield benefit over control for the first crop and 41-43% yield benefit for the third crop was observed. Amendment of soil with dololime @ 1 t ha-1 coupled with poultry manure @ 3 t ha-1 or FYM @ 5 t ha-1 could be an efficient practice for achieving higher crop yield due to optimization of soil acidity and nutrient uptake by plants.