Comprehensive assessment of nutrient management technologies for cauliflower production under subtropical conditions

We developed a methodological protocol for comprehensive evaluation of nutrient management (NM) technologies for production of cauliflower taking its yield, quality, profitability, energy balance and environmental sustainability in terms of soil quality as the goal variables. Fifteen NM technologies comprising three sources of nutrients viz., organics [farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost (VC) and green manure], inorganic fertilizations (recommended NPK at the rate of 200-44-82 kg ha(-1) and 125% of recommended NPK) and their selected combinations were tested for producing cauliflower for six consecutive growing seasons during 2006-2011. Integrated NM technology proved to be economically sound and environment-friendly practice. It helped to produce better quality cauliflower with higher value added products such as crude protein, dietary fibre, and vitamin C. Further, it concomitantly maintained better soil quality by improving soil organic carbon stock, microbial biomass carbon, bulk density and extractable plant available nutrients. Combining all the parameters together by employing non-parametric evaluation of regression factor scores through principal component analysis, the NM technology of FYM 5 Mg ha(-1) + 125% of recommended NPK and VC 3 Mg ha(-1) + 125% of recommended NPK were found to be the best among the NM technologies compared. The superiority of the technologies were attributed to higher curd biomass yield (836 and 9.70 Mg ha(-1), respectively), higher economic return (benefit-cost ratio 2.7 and 2.5; marginal rate of return 8.0 and 5.1, respectively), more energy conserving efficiency (net energy 22.4 and 25.7 GJ ha(-1); output-input energy ratio 1.86 and 2.00, respectively) and greater improvement in the indices of soil quality (6.219 and 5.709, respectively) and crop quality for human (6.7 and 7.4, respectively) and animal (7.4 and 6.4, respectively) nutrition. Organics were less productive, less profitable, and energetically less efficientas compared to integrated and inorganic systems for cauliflower production in subtropics. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.