Determining the Effect of Plant Leaf Mulching in Ginger on Yield and Soil Health at NICRA Village in Chatra District of Jharkhand, India

The study aimed to determine the Effect of Plant Leaf Mulching in Ginger on Yield and Soil Health at NICRA Village in Chatra District of Jharkhand, India. Mulching is the process or practice of covering the soil/ground to make favorable condition for plant growth, development and efficient crop production. 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. For better interpretation, data on soil chemical analyses before and after mulching, yield, and economics were recorded. On the basis of farmer criteria, a matrix ranking was performed for each intervening treatment. Participatory rural assessment was used to create the matrix rating. 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. Forest plant leaf which is generally used by farmers as a cooking material converted as mulching material in the district. This recommendation given district line department NGOs and ATMA for extrapolation in the similar farming community.