Productivity, profitability and energetics of buckwheat (Fagopyrum sp.) cultivars as influenced by varying levels of vermicompost in acidic soils of Sikkim Himalayas, India

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Research Farm of ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong rabi 2011 and 2012 to find out the optimum dose of vermincompost for obtaining higher productivity, profitability and energetics of two local buckwheat cultivars in Sikkim Himalaya. Results revealed that among the two cultivars, Teethey recorded significantly higher number of grains/plant (170 and 165), test weight (23.8 and 23.2g), gross returns (60 × 103 and 54 × 103 Rs./ha), net returns (41 × 103 and 36 × 103 Rs./ha), B:C ratio (2.18 and 1.89), profitability (306 and 264 Rs./ha/day), production efficiency (7.88 and 7.09 kg/ha/day) and EUE (22.7 and 20.8%) over Meethey. This led to 10.8 and 9.4%, 17.2 and 18.4% and 11.7 and 8.4% increment in grain yield, B:C ratio and energy use efficiency (EUE) over Meethey. Application of vermicompost (VC) @2.5 tonnes/ha recorded higher values of grains/plant, test weight, grain yield and haulm yield resulting in highest gross returns. However, significantly higher B:C ratio (2.30 and 2.14) was found with VC @1.5 tonnes/ha over other VC levels during both years. Similarly, application of VC @1.5 tonnes/ha recorded maximum EUE (23.4 and 22.3%), energy productivity (1.34 and 1.28 kg/MJ) resulting in more energy saving for buckwheat production as compared to other levels of VC.