EFFECTIVENESS OF A NEW ORGANOMINERAL FERTILIZER IN A FIELD CROP ROTATION

Abstract

In order to assess the agronomical efficiency of new organo-mineral fertilizer (OMF), developed in collaboration with Bilavis LLC from poultry droppings, and its role in improving the farming sustainability, a microfield experiment was established in the Menkovsky branch of the Agrophysical Institute in 2012–2018. For the experiment, it was used polyethene containers without a bottom with a 1 m² square. For the filling of the containers, the degraded average cultivated sod-podzolic soil was used. The fertilizer was used in a field crop rotation “green manure fallow (lupine), winter wheat, barley + perennial grasses, first-year perennial grasses, second-year perennial grasses, potato, spring rape”. The fertilizer was applied three times for winter wheat (3, 5 and 7 t/ha), barley and potato (4, 7 and 10 t/ha) separately and in combination with potassium fertilizer (10 kg K₂O per 1 ton of the OMF) and complete mineral fertilizer (N75P50K50 and N100P75K75). The study found that the OMF from poultry droppings, produced by Bilavis LLC, had favourable technological properties. Given the specificity of the chemical composition (N:P:K = 1:1.8:1.4) and the alkaline reaction of the fertilizer, it should be preferably used on phosphorus-depleted soils of high acidity. The application of the OMF in field crop rotations on sod-podzolic soils in single doses from 3 to 10 t/ha (an annual average dose is from 1.6 to 3.9 t/ha) is justified both for potato and for grain crops. The average level of yield increase of potato tubers reached 77%, barley grain – 77% and winter wheat – 101%. The aftereffect was expressed in increasing the yield of green mass of blue lupine, perennial grasses and spring rape by 14–36%. The introduction of the OMF into the fertilizer system of the field crop rotation contributed to the stabilization of its productivity due to the integrated optimization of the soil conditions for the realization of the adaptive potential of crops to adverse weather and climate events. The variability of productivity of individual crops over the years decreased 1.4–1.8 times, and the variability of crop rotation in general reduced 1.7–2 times.