Contrasting response of wheat to one-time root zone fertilization of ordinary and polymer coated urea for grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency

Abstract

Appropriate fertilization methods and high efficiency of N fertilizers are crucial to achieve high yields and curtail N losses. This study documented the comparative effectiveness of one-time root zone fertilization (ORZF) and polymer coated urea (PCU) as alternate ways to enhance grain yield and reduce potential N losses in wheat. The study was planned using two N fertilization methods [split-surface broadcasting (SSB) and ORZF], two N sources [ordinary urea (OU) and PCU] along with a control treatment following a completely randomized design. The SSB proved more efficient by showing 9% higher grain yield than ORZF, irrespective of N sources. The PCU resulted in 8% and 10% more grain yield than OU when applied through SSB and ORZF method, respectively. Likewise, maximum total N uptake was achieved with PCU than OU with an increment of 15% (SSB) and 7% (ORZF). The NUE indices remained statistically similar between methods, however, SSB showed higher values than ORZF. On the other hand, N sources had a pronounced effect on these indices which improved considerably with the PCU than OU under both methods. Maximum N losses were quantified with the OU in both methods (56% in SSB, and 54% in ORZF). Conversely, these losses were significantly reduced to 42% in SSB and to 48% in ORZF with the addition of PCU. The findings suggested that the application of PCU can be an effective way to improve wheat productivity and reduce N losses but ORZF is not a suitable alternative to SSB for wheat crops.

Keywords:

• fertilization methods
• nitrogen sources
• N use efficiency
• urea
• wheat

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Mahboob Ali Sial, Deputy Chief Scientist/Head Plant Breeding and Genetics Division, Nuclear Institute of Agriculture, Tandojam, for providing plant material to conduct this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests.