The second largest tea producing state in India is West Bengal. Darjeeling districts themselves produce 25% of India's total tea production. Tea cultivation has been carried out for centuries in the Indo-Burmese mega-biodiversity hotspot of Assam and Dooars region of West Bengal. Tea sprigs (bushes) are pruned every four to five years to maintain their vegetative growth and to adopt crop cultivation practices. This process will help in adopting proper soil conservation practices and prevent further degradation of soil resources for sustainable tea productivity. Since tea is a foliage crop, the shoots (two leaves and one shoot) are harvested at regular intervals. In this process, nutrients are removed from the plant-soil system and should be replenished to maintain the nutritional conditions of the soil. To restore soil fertility, fertilizers other than organic or biomanure are used in several cultivated fields. Since India ranks second in tea exports, the use of chemical manure and pesticides reduces its export demand. As organic fertilizers, including bioinoculants or biofertilizers, are gaining momentum day by day to meet the growing demand for “organic crops”, the use of biofertilizers in the tea field is of great importance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Soil fertility is the ability of the soil to make nutrients available to plants. The nutritional condition of arable land can be related to yields in order to develop fertilization proposals (Tisdale et al., 1985). Nutrient management in tea plantations is an important aspect and nutrients are mainly supplied through fertilizers other than chemical ones. However, it is widely accepted that a balanced application of manure with efficient use of other inputs is the key to achieving higher agricultural production (Karthikeyini, 2002). Continuous and heavy applications of chemical/mineral fertilizers lead to deterioration of soil properties as well as causing environmental damage. The use of organic fertilizers and biofertilizers could reduce these problems because they are advantageous over fertilizers other than organic or biofertilizers for improving soil fertility. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to integrate three different sources of nutrients, namely organics, chemicals and bioinoculants, for a more efficient and economical production system in the long term. Bioinoculants or bioaccelerants are environmentally friendly and represent an economically advantageous manure in place of fertilizers other than organic ones or biomanure (Karthikeyini, 2002). Literature reveals that the use of organic substances and biofertilizers in tea cultivation is very low or limited. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influence of integrated application of organic manure and biomanure with possible reduction of inorganic manure on tea yield and quality. Organic agriculture is gradually replacing classical or conventional agriculture due to the growing demand for organic food and increasing environmental protection. concerns (Hansen et al., 2001). The application of inorganic fertilizers to improve and maintain soil fertility and crop productivity often negatively affects the biogeochemical cycle (Perrott et al, 1992; Steinshann et al., 2004). The use of fertilizers containing N, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) in agricultural production has grown rapidly in recent decades (Adesmoyee and Kloepper, 2009). Classic or conventional agriculture using chemical manure leads to, 1961).
tags