Comparative effect of FYM and Azotobacter on morphology and nutritional quality of high and low altitude grown knol khol (Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes L.) cultivar White Vienna

Shardulya Shukla; Monisha Rawat; Nitish Kumar; Ankita Sharma; Anshu Verma; Rakesh Kumar Behera; Manoj Kumar Patel; Mohan Singh Thakur; OM Prakash Chaurasia; Shweta Saxena

doi:10.14429/dlsj.9.19777

Shardulya Shukla DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5766-6503
Monisha Rawat Department of Horticulture, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University Phagwara, Punjab - 144 411, India http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4888-168X
Nitish Kumar DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1370-8924
Ankita Sharma DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3990-3026
Anshu Verma DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0914-2289
Rakesh Kumar Behera DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2295-699X
Manoj Kumar Patel DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9413-8224
Mohan Singh Thakur DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1349-3479
OM Prakash Chaurasia DRDO-Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), C/o 56 APO, Leh-Ladakh - 194 101, India http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2921-2755
Shweta Saxena Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), Girinagar, Pune - 411 025, India http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8171-4264

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/dlsj.9.19777

Keywords: FYM; Azotobacter; knol-khol; sustainable production; Nutritional quality

Abstract

Extreme environmental conditions of high altitude (HA) expose the food crops to abiotic stresses that may impact their growth and nutritional composition, which also varies depending on agricultural practices being used. Therefore, the present study is designed to a compare the efficacy of organic agri-treatments viz. farm yard manure (FYM) and Azotobacter on morphological and nutritional traits of knol-khol cultivar White Vienna grown at HA and low altitude (LA). The field trial was conducted as a two-factorial experiment in a randomized block design. The first factor was treatments (T₁-FYM, T₂-Azotobacter, T₃-FYM+Azotobacter and T₄-(control) and second factor was cultivation locations (HA vs. LA). The findings revealed that the application of treatment T₃ at HA resulted in higher total soluble solids (1.38-fold), titratable acidity (0.06-fold), total carbohydrate (1.9-fold), crude protein (3.7-fold), crude fat (3-fold) and dietary fiber content (78-fold) whereas, yield (137.6-fold) and ash content (0.85-fold) content were found higher at LA. The current study emphasizes upon the superior efficiency of combination treatment of FYM and Azotobacter at HA to improve the nutritional quality of food crops, with added benefits of environmental sustainability and nutritional security.