Determination of balanced nutrition in dry land wheat

Wheat growers in Pakistan mostly apply Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) at sowing time whereas the application of balanced NPK nutrition increases wheat yield manifolds. In this study, efforts were made to determine the effect and economics of balanced nutrition by applying all three macronutrients in their potential combinations for two successive cropping seasons of wheat under dry land conditions. The trial was laid out at the Agricultural Research Institute, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three factors (Factor-A consisted of nitrogen doses, Factor-B phosphorous doses and Factor-C potassium doses). The results obtained in this study showed that nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium when applied @ 120:90:60 kg ha-1 produced higher economic yield and yield contributing parameters than all other combinations applied. This resulted in higher crop growth rate (3.76, 3.17, 2.33, 5.48 and 3.83, 3.24, 2.39, 5.66 ), net assimilation rate (0.64, 0.60, 0.41, 0.75 and 0.63, 0.58, 0.40, 0.75) net photosynthesis rate (13.3, 13.0, 10.3, 17.2 and 13.3, 13.2, 10.4, 17.4) at 63 days after sowing-DAS, (3.5, 3.6, 3.2, 5.6 and 3.5, 3.5, 3.2, 5.5 ) at 126 DAS, total number of tillers (269, 255, 234, 299 and 269, 257, 235 m-2), spike length (8.0, 7.7, 7.7 and 8.5, 7.8, 7.5 cm), number of grains (46, 43, 44, 43 and 47, 44, 45, 54 spike-1), 1000-grain weight (37.6, 36.3, 34.1, 42.1 and 37.9, 36.5, 34.3 and 42.7 g), economic yield (3970, 3020, 2653, 4697 and 4024, 3045, 2680 and 4750 kg ha-1) and net returns per rupee invested. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that application of NPK fertilizers @ 120 kg N, 90 kg P2O5 and 60 kg K2O ha-1 is most suitable for successful dry-land wheat production.