Enhancing Wheat Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency through Integrated Nutrient Management Practices

Abstract

Integrated nutrient management, which combines organic and inorganic nutrient sources, is an important strategy for improving soil fertility and nutrient utilisation in sustainable agriculture. Effective nutrient management is particularly important for optimising wheat growth and yield. This study investigated the effects of farmyard manure (FYM), NPK consortia, and nano-urea, in combination with different proportions of the recommended dose of fertiliser (RDF), on wheat growth, yield, and nitrogen-use efficiency. The field experiment was conducted at KVK, Ghazipur, using a randomised block design with three replications. Nine treatments comprising different combinations of RDF, FYM, NPK consortia, and nano-urea were evaluated. Plant height, tiller density, grain and straw yields, and agronomic use efficiency (AUE) were measured at critical growth stages or at harvest. Data were analysed using analysis of variance, and treatment means were compared using the critical difference at the 5% probability level. Nutrient management significantly affected plant height, and T4 (100% RDF + FYM) produced the greatest height at all stages, reaching 87.8 cm at harvest. T4 also recorded the highest tiller density at 60 DAS (106.8 m⁻¹ row length) and harvest (69.8 m⁻¹ row length), grain yield (6.20 t/ha), straw yield (7.60 t/ha), and AUE (17.5 kg grain/kg N). T6 produced the second-highest grain yield (5.72 t/ha), while T7 outperformed T2. Overall, combining 100% RDF with FYM improved wheat growth, yield, and nitrogen-use efficiency.