Fertilizer recommendation for puddling garlic cultivation: An approach to optimize fertilizer use and enhance sustainable yield and income

The experiment was conducted in the farmers’ field of shibpur, puthia, Rajshahi during three consecutive years at rabi season of 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 to evaluate the effect of fertilizers on puddling garlic cultivation and to find out a suitable combination of different fertilizers for puddling garlic production. The experiment was laid out in RCBD design with six dispersed replications and four fertilizer doses viz. T1=STB fertilizer dose for high yield goal, T2=20% higher NPK than STB, T3=40% higher NPK than STB supplemented with 5 ton ha-1 cowdung and T4=Farmers dose. Three tones ha-1 of rice straw was used as mulch with all the fertilize doses. Garlic variety BARI Rasun – 2 was used as test crop. Among the treatments, the highest average yield was obtained from T3= 40 % higher NPK than STB (9.57 t ha-1) which was similar to T4= Farmers practice (9.52 t ha-1). Nutrient addition was very much unbalanced in T4. Maximum gross return (574200 Tk ha-1), net return (328465Tk ha-1) and BCR (2.34) were found in T3 treatment. The treatment T3 produced the lowest break-even price (25.68 Tk kg-1) and the highest sustainability index (85.5%). Considering all these facts, the treatment T3(40% higher NPK than STB =220-18-84-34-2.5-3 kg ha-1 NPKSZnB respectively) should be recommended for wide extension of puddling garlic cultivation in High Ganges River Floodplain Agro-ecological zone (AEZ-11) in Bangladesh.