Monitoring Nutrient Status for Maize in Northwestern India through Diagnostic and Recommendation Integrated System Approach

Abstract

Diagnostic and recommendation integrated system (DRIS) norms were established for various nutrient ratios obtained from the high-yield population of maize cultivated in submountainous areas of Punjab and were used to compute DRIS indices. Nutrient sufficiency ranges derived from DRIS norms were 1.67–3.12, 0.23–0.43, 0.89–2.56, 0.21–0.50, 0.1–0.32, and 0.10–0.20% for nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S) and were 181–278, 27–75, 14–29, and 4–8 mg kg⁻¹ for iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu), respectively. According to these DRIS-derived sufficiency ranges, 95, 94, 95, 87, 90, and 86% of samples were sufficient whereas 4, 3, 4, 2, 2, and 2% of samples were low in N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S, respectively. In micronutrients, 80, 90, 85, and 68% of samples were sufficient, whereas 36 17, 10, 14, and 31% samples had excessive Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu, respectively. Thus, the DRIS approach can be employed to obtain the fertility status of the soil, and the amount of each nutrient can be computed for balanced utilization of fertilizers.

Keywords:

• DRIS norms
• foliar nutrition
• leaf composition
• maize
• sufficiency ranges