Traditional fossil fuels having limited availability causing energy crisis all over the world. This leads to increasing trend toward the use of cheap and readily available biomass for renewable energy production. Biomass is best source for renewable energ

Field experiment was carried out in Instructional farm, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Angul of Odisha during rabi seasons of 2010-11 and 2011-12 to study effect of mulching and nutrient management practices on growth, yield, nutrient uptake of Indian mustard and soil moisture content. The experiment comprised of three main plot treatments viz. no mulching, soil mulching, straw mulching and four subplots viz RDF, RDF+Sulphur, 75% RDF+FYM, 75% RDF+vermicompost in split plot design with three replications. The results revealed that application of straw mulching@ 5t ha-1 recorded significantly higher dry matter accumulation plant-1 (28.43 g) , no of siliquae plant-1(171.58), grain yield(14.17 q ha-1), stover yield (47.75 q ha-1), harvest index (22.93 %), soil moisture content at harvest( 14.8 %) with maximum uptake of N, P, K and S by both seeds and stovers than no mulching. Among the nutrient management practices, application of 75% RDF+ vermicompost 2 t ha-1 recorded maximum dry matter accumulation plant-1 (30.85 g), grain yield(18.83 q ha-1) with moisture content at harvest(13.67 %). Thus, application of straw mulching @ 5t ha-1 and 75% RDF+ vermicompost 2 t ha-1 can be practiced for maximizing yield, improvement of growth, nutrient uptake of Indian mustard and soil moisture content.