A Comparative Study on the Effect of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Agronomic Performance of Faba Bean ( Vicia faba L.) and Pea ( Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

The study was conducted to observe the comparative effect of organic fertilizer (cow dung) and inorganic fertilizers like urea and potassium chloride on the growth, biomass and biochemical parameters of two legumes of pea (Pisum sativum) and faba bean (Vicia faba). Experiments were done using two plant species of legume family. Organic fertilizer like cow dung (15t/ha) and inorganic fertilizer was applied at rate of urea (120kg/ha) and potassium chloride (125kg/ha). The application of cow dung at 15t/ha showed significant growth over the inorganic fertilizer urea and potassium chloride in terms of germination percentage, fresh weight and dry weight, plant height, shoot length, and root length as well as number of leaves in both the legume plants. Similarly, biochemical parameters have also shown significant differences from organic fertilizer over the inorganic fertilizers and control. Thus our study provides the evidence for using organic fertilizer like cow dung by farmers to have better yield to produce quality grains as cow dung is easy available, environmentally safe and cost effective in pea and faba bean plants.