INTEGRATED USE OF FARM MANURE AND MINERAL FERTILIZERS TO MAINTAIN SOIL QUALITY FOR BETTER COTTON (Gossypium hirsutum L.) PRODUCTION

A field experiment was conducted on cotton crop to evaluate the effect of farm manure (fm) alone and in combination with the mineral fertilizers. fm was treated with the 1% application of effective microorganism prepared with molasses to enrich the status of fm as fm-fermented. cotton varity krishma was cultivated in field with treatments viz. control, fm @ 20mg ha^-1, fm-fermented@ 20 mg ha^-1, ½ npk+fm (20 mg ha^-1), ½ npk+ fm-fermented (20 mg ha^-1) and npk (175-85-60 kg ha^-1). the experiment was laid out according to randomized complete block design with four replications. at flowering stage fully expanded younger leaves were collocated and analysed for n, p and k contents. growth and yield parameters of cotton like plant height, sympodial branches, no. of boll plant^-1, seed cotton boll plant^-1 and seed cotton yield kg ha^-1 were recorded. soil was analyzed after the harvest of crop for n, p, k and organic matter contents. data were analysed statistically. the results of the experiment indicated that application of recommended dose of npk produced higher seed cotton yield (2660 kg ha^-1) and followed by ½ npk+fm-fermented (2523 kg ha^-1) and differed significantly from other treatments. there was positive increase in the n, p and k concentration in cotton leaves and in soil due to the combined application of ½ npk+fmfermented.