Evaluation of N fertilization management strategies for increasing crop yields and nitrogen use efficiency in furrow-irrigated maize–wheat system under permanent raised bed planting

ABSTRACT

Information on the effect of N management on crop yields and N use efficiency (NUE) under furrow irrigations is scarce for conservation agriculture (CA)-based annual maize–wheat (MW) system in South Asia. A 2-year (2013–2015) field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of residue management in main plots and combinations of two rates and three methods of N fertilizer application plus no N control treatment in subplots on the yield, N uptake and NUE of permanent raised bed (PB) MW system in north-western India. Residue retained on surface significantly increased grain yields by 7.7% and 4.3% in maize and wheat compared to no residue, respectively. Results showed that while uniformly broadcast method (B) required 120 kg N ha⁻¹, similar maize and wheat yields can be achieved with 90 kg N ha⁻¹ using deep placement on beds (DB) thereby saving 30 kg N ha⁻¹. DB increased maize yield by 5.4% and 10.9% compared with DF and B, respectively. In wheat, DB and DF significantly increased grain yield by 4–7% compared to B. At 120 kg N ha⁻¹, NUE of 61% and 74% with B was increased to 73% and 98% with DB in wheat and maize, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Band placement fertilizer
• broadcast fertilizer
• conservation agriculture
• N use efficiency
• residue management

Acknowledgements

Authors thankfully acknowledge the funding support for the conduct of the study received from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) under the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and United States Agency for International Agricultural Research (USAID) and CGIAR Research Programmes Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT). We also acknowledge the facilities provided by Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) Ladhowal, (Punjab), India and Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India to carry out this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) [CRP 3.1].