Vol. 9, Special Issue 10, Part X (2025)

A field experiment was conducted at the Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station (OUAT), Mahisapat, Dhenkanal district, during the kharif season of 2021 to evaluate the effect of different sulphur sources on groundnut in the Mid-Central Table Land Zone of Odisha. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications and seven treatments, namely: (1) Control, (2) STD (NPK) + S₀, (3) STD (NPK) + S₄₀ (elemental sulphur), (4) STD (NK) + S₄₀ (single super phosphate), (5) STD (NPK) + S₄₀ (gypsum), (6) STD (NPK) + liquid sulphur spray @ 0.5% at 15-20 DAS, and (7) STD (K) + S₂₀ (ammonium phosphate sulphate) + liquid sulphur spray @ 0.5% at 15-20 DAS. Among the seven treatments, STD (K) + S₂₀ (APS) + LS spray @ 0.5% at 15-20 DAS recorded superior performance in terms of growth and yield attributes such as plant height (48.2 cm), growth rate (5.3 mm day⁻¹), number of branches (9.9), number of pods per plant (21), and shelling percentage (69.2). The total pod yield obtained under this treatment was 2287 kg ha⁻¹. Sulphur management significantly enhanced nutrient uptake, resulting in the highest removal of 65, 33, 80, and 15.4 kg ha⁻¹ of N, P, K, and S, respectively, along with an additional nitrogen gain of 31.5 kg ha⁻¹, maximum phosphorus recovery (53.5%), potassium recovery (75%), and sulphur recovery (33%) compared to the gypsum source (56.2 kg N ha⁻¹, 33 kg P ha⁻¹, 70.5 kg K ha⁻¹, and 9.7 kg S ha⁻¹ with respective recoveries of 22.4%, 29.2%, 49.5%, and 11%). Economically, this treatment recorded the highest net return of ₹71,370 ha⁻¹ with a benefit-cost ratio of 2.65, indicating a return of ₹2.65 per rupee invested.