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Utilizing agricultural and industrial wastes, potent reservoirs of nutrients, for nourishing the soil and crops through composting embodies a sustainable approach to waste management and organic agriculture. To investigate this, a 2-year field experiment was conducted at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, focusing on a pigeon pea--vegetable mustard--okra cropping system. Seven nutrient sources were tested, including a control (T1), 100% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) through farmyard manure (T2), 100% RDN through improved rice residue compost (T3), 100% RDN through a paddy husk ash (PHA)--based formulation (T4), 75% RDN through PHA-based formulation (T5), 100% RDN through a potato peel compost (PPC)--based formulation (T6), and 75% RDN through PPC-based formulation (T7). Employing a randomized block design with three replications, the results revealed that treatment T4 exhibited the significantly highest seed (1.89 ± 0.09 and 1.97 ± 0.12 t ha-1) and stover (7.83 ± 0.41 and 8.03 ± 0.58 t ha-1) yield of pigeon pea, leaf yield (81.57 ± 4.69 and 82.97 ± 4.17 t ha-1) of vegetable mustard, and fruit (13.54 ± 0.82 and 13.78 ± 0.81 t ha-1) and stover (21.64 ± 1.31 and 22.03 ± 1.30 t ha-1) yield of okra during both study years compared to the control (T1). Treatment T4 was on par with T2 and T6 for seed and stover yield in pigeon pea, as well as okra, and leaf yield in vegetable mustard over both years. Moreover, T4 demonstrated notable increase of 124.1% and 158.2% in NH4-N and NO3-N levels in the soil, respectively, over the control. The enhanced status of available nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the soil, coupled with increased soil organic carbon (0.41%), total bacteria population (21.1%), fungi (37.2%), actinomycetes (44.6%), and microbial biomass carbon (28.5%), further emphasized the positive impact of T4 compared to the control. Treatments T2 and T6 exhibited comparable outcomes to T4 concerning changes in available N, P, soil organic carbon, total bacteria population, fungi, actinomycetes, and microbial biomass carbon. In conclusion, treatments T4 and T6 emerge as viable sources of organic fertilizer, particularly in regions confronting farmyard manure shortages. These formulations offer substantial advantages, including enhanced yield, soil quality improvement, and efficient fertilizer utilization, thus contributing significantly to sustainable agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation of enriched formulation by integrating of agricultural wastes such as paddy husk ash (PHA) and potato peel with organic fertilizer such as farmyard manure (FYM), compost can enrich the soil with essential plant nutrients, leading to higher yields in subsequent crops and potentially reducing the dependence on farmyard manure/compost alone. However, there is lack of adequate research findings regarding the impact of different formulations generated from agricultural waste on productivity, nutrient utilization efficiency and profitability of baby corn-kabuli gram-vegetable cowpea cropping system. Therefore, a two-year field experiment (2020-2022) was conducted ICAR-IARI, New Delhi with baby corn-kabuli gram-vegetable cowpea cropping system. Seven nutrient sources were tested in Randomized Block Design and replicate thrice. The results showed that treatment T4 (100% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) through PHA based formulation) had significant effect on crop yield grown in rotation, followed by treatment T6 (100% RDN through potato peel compost (PPC) based formulation) and T2 (100% RDN through FYM). The increase in yield was 75.0, 44.3 and 33.1% during first year and 72.6, 45.9 and 31.0% during second year, respectively, over control. Treatment T4 also significantly enhanced system uptake of N, P and K as well as system gross returns and net returns, resulting in 65.6, 84.9, 69.5, 50.7 and 55.2% higher returns during first year and 68.6, 80.5, 73.9, 50.0 and 54.2% higher returns during second year, respectively, over control. Furthermore, treatment T4 significantly improved agronomic nitrogen use efficiency and apparent recovery by 151.6 and 2.0% in baby corn, 74.2 and 1.5% in kabuli gram, 55.7 and 13.9% in veg cowpea over T7, respectively, averaged across two years of study. Based on these results, it is recommended to adopt (T4) 100% RDN through PHA based formulation, and (T6) 100% RDN through PPC based formulation in the area with a shortage of FYM but with the availability of rice husk ash or pototo peels for sustainable utilization of the agricultural wastes and improving the agricultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]