Effect of Plant Leaf Mulching in Ginger on Yield and Soil Health at NICRA Village in Chatra District of Jharkhand: A Review

The FLD experiment was conducted in 20 replication (Farmers field) in National Innovation on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) village Mardanpur in Arra Panchat of Chatra block in Chatra district of Jharkhand on three consecutive year 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. The FLD experiment was conducted in randomized block design with 2000 m2 plot size for each technological option. The two technology options are as follows TO-I: (Farmers Practice) Burning of plant leaf in forest area and use as cooking material and transplanting ginger in the month of May without mulching with N100P60K60. TO-II: Mulching of ginger field by plant leaf (5 q/ha) with N75P40K45. The rationale behind selection of technology option (TO-II) was disseminate scientific recommendations i.e. mulching of ginger field to demonstrated famers convincing the benefit of mulching in the place of burning leaf in forest area. The data on soil chemical analysis before and after mulching, yield and economic was recorded for better interpretation matrix ranking was done for each of intervened treatments on the basis of farmers criteria matrix ranking was accomplished through participatory rural appraisal. Farmer’s reaction was measure in five point rating scale. The overall score reflecting the degree of favorable, unfavorable and neutral to the related technology intervention (Negative = 2.5, Natural = 2.3 – 3.5 and positive above = 3.5). Result indicated that on an average ginger yield was 144.83 q/ha in farmers practice where as in technology option (TO-II), it was 187.7 q/ha respectively. Return per rupee spent was also found more in TO-II i.e. 4.99 as compare to farmer practice i.e. 3.88.