• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2006

An experiment was conducted to study the efficiency of cyanobacterial biofertilizer (CBB) with chemical (NPK) fertilizer on quantitative and qualitative characters of mulberry variety Kanva-2. Their influences on silkworm growth and cocoon characters were also studied. Ten different CBB and NPK fertilizer treatments were given to 5000 plants of established mulberry garden. Treatments were of four types viz., (i) T1 to T7: single and combination dose of CBB+50% NPK (ii) T8: combination dose of CBB + 25%NPK, (iii) T9: CBB only and (iv) T10: control-l00% NPK. Soil pH decreased and nutrients status increased in CBB (T1- T9) treated plots. Average of ten crops data on quantitative traits revealed that T7 (CBB [N. muscorum (1.0 g), A. variahilis (1.0) and S. millei (1.0 g)] + 50% NPK) was very effective in improving growth parameters. Leaf yield was also found high in treatment T7 (32.12 tons/ha/yr.) followed by T10 (31.17 tons/ha/yr.) and T8 (27.67 tons/ha/yr.). Leaf quality characters were found high in T7 and low in T9. Most of the quality traits in T7 are on par with control no. The results revealed that reduction in the dose of chemical fertilizers in T7 did not affect the leaf yield and leaf quality traits of mulberry. This clearly indicates that the efficiency of CBB (T7) provides nitrogen, increases essential nutrients available in soil, maintain soil pH and supply growth substances required for the improvement of leaf yield and leaf quality of mulberry. Bioassay study also revealed no significant difference in silkworm growth and cocoon characters between treatments T7 and T10. Economics calculated revealed that T7 is highly economical and beneficial over T10 by gaining an amount of Rs. 660/-/acre/crop. Thus, treatment T7 containing N. muscorum (1.0 g), A. variahilis (1.0 g) and S. millei (1.0 g) + 50% NPK fertilizers can be recommended to sericulturists mainly to reduce the use of NPK fertilizers, by saving 50% of its cost and to improve soil fertility conditions, which in turn improves leaf yield and quality of mulberry.