AJ Life Sci. 2021, 4 (2): 100-108

EXPLORING THE BEST NP RATIO FOR WHEAT IN PERSPECTIVE OF PRESENT FARMERS' BUDGET FOR FERTILIZER

Muhammad Nadeem Iqbal 1 , Adnan Umair *2 , Zia Chishti 1 ,Zafar Abbas 3 , Hafiz Riaz Ahmad 4 Samina Hamid 5 Nadeem Raza 1 Khalid Mehmood Mughal 6 Mahreen Khalid 4 and Iftikhar Haider 6

1Soil Fertility, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan

2*Soil and Water Conservation Research Station Sohawa, Pakistan

3Soil Fertility, SWTL, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

4Soil Fertility Research Institute, Lahore, Pakistan

5Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Sheikhupura, Pakistan

6AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan



Abstract

Farming community has a limited budget for various inputs like fertilizers for crops. Farmers usually allocate more money to nitrogen fertilizers while spending less money on phosphorus. Field experiments were carried out at farmers' fields to explore the effect of various ratios of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer while keeping the farmers' budget constant. Fertilizer experiments were conducted on wheat in Punjab Pakistan during years 2015-16 to 2017-18 at different locations in Punjab. Five different ratios (4:1, 3:1, 2:1, 1.7:1) of N and P were used with treatments of 152-37-0, 137-46-0, 117-58-0, 108-64-0, 160-114-0. Recommended dose of 160-114-60 kg ha-1 of N-P2O5-K2O was also applied for additional information. At maturity, crop was harvested and data of wheat grain for each site were recorded. During the year 2015-16, 12 sites produced higher wheat yield with NP ratio of 1.7:1 (T4) out of 14 field sites. Similarly in 2016-17, out of 19, 18 experimental sites produced higher grain yield with T4 as economically best fertilizer combination. Similar results were obtained during 2017-18 with T4 and out of 17, 15 experimental sites produced comparatively higher grain yield. Recommended dose @ 160-114-60 kg ha-1 produced highest grain yield. However, among farmer budget treatments, T4-a combination of nitrogen@108 kg ha-1 and phosphorus@64 kg ha-1 gave higher wheat production. It is concluded that farmers can increase the yield of wheat just by balancing the fertilizer and increasing the phosphorus use in place of nitrogen.

Keywords: nitrogen, phosphorus, budget, wheat, grain.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.34091/AJLS.4.2.12

Received

October 21, 2021

Received Revised

December 30, 2021

Accepted

December 30, 2021

Available Online

December 31, 2021


Corresponding author email:

adnanumair@gmail.com

How to Cite

Abasyn Journal of Life Sciences , ISSN (online): 2663-1040, Published by Abasyn University