Vol. 11, Special Issue 12 (2022)

Organic farming is one of the best and the most viable alternative to traditional farming techniques. As livestock is major resource to mankind for doing allied activity the abundant quantity of cattle waste containing cow urine and cow dung is available at farm level which is good source of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, and Cl. Vermiwash is also very good plant tonic which is used for foliar spray. As it contains plant nutrients, vitamins, plant growth promoting substances. The present experiment entitled, “Effect of cow urine and Vermiwash application on growth and yield of organic chickpea” conducted at AICRP IFS (All India Coordinated Research Project farm on Integrated Farming system), Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri, Dist. Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) during Rabi season of 2020-21. The RBD (Randomised Block Design) was used for the field experiment with three replications. There were ten treatments viz., T₁- Cow urine 6 ml L^-1, T₂- Cow urine 8 ml L^-1, T₃- Cow urine 10 ml L^-1, T₄- Vermiwash 6 ml L^-1, T₅- Vermiwash 8 ml L^-1, T₆- Vermiwash 10 ml L^-1, T₇- Cow urine 6 ml L^-1 + Vermiwash 6 ml L^-1, T₈- Cow urine 8 ml L^-1 + Vermiwash 8 ml L^-1, T₉- Cow urine 10 ml L^-1 + Vermiwash 10 ml L^-1, T₁₀ – Control. Foliar application of these treatments were done on crop at flowering as well as at pod formation stage. After applying above treatments the growth contributing characters viz., plant height, number of branches plant^-1, plant spread and dry matter plant^-1 of the crop sprayed with treatment T_{9 i.e.} application of cow urine 10 ml L^-1 + Vermiwash 10 ml L^-1 was recorded higher values of growth, yield, quality attributing characters and economic returns as compared with rest of foliar application treatments and it is reported at par with treatment T₈ i.e. application of cow urine 8 ml L^-1 + Vermiwash 8 ml L^-1 at 70, 84 DAS and at the time of harvest. Based on one season trial data, foliar spray of treatment T₉ i.e. application of cow urine 10 ml L^-1 + Vermiwash 10 ml L^-1 at the stage of flowering and at pod formation found suitable for achieving desirable growth, yield, nutrient uptake, higher protein content of seed and economic returns in chickpea.