Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Ummesalma Sanadi, KK Math, BI Bidari, Kumar D Lamani and Kiran K Mirajkar

Abstract:
A field experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of All India Co-ordinated Wheat and Barley Improvement Project (AICW & BIP), MARS, UAS, Dharwad during rabi, 2020. The experiment was laidout in completely randomized block design with fifteen treatments replicated thrice. The treatments consisted of different fertilizer recommendation approaches namely site specific nutrient management (SSNM) and soil test crop response (STCR) for targeted yields at 40, 45, 50 and 55 q ha^-1, Nutrient Expert (NE) approach target yield at 40 q ha^-1 and soil test laboratory (STL) and these were compared with graded levels of fertilizer application (125 and 150% of RDF) and RPP. The growth, yield attributes, yield and economics in wheat was significantly influenced by the precision nutrient management approaches. The results revealed that the significant increase in plant height and total dry matter accumulation in wheat at 45 (36.60 cm and 1.42 g plant^-1) and 75 DAS (68.00 cm and 6.86 g plant^-1) and at harvest (89.00 cm and 14.1 g plant^-1) was observed in site specific nutrient management for yield target at 50 q ha^-1. The photosynthetic parameters namely leaf area index, SPAD and NDVI values at 45 (1.30, 45.1 and 0.52, respectively) and 75 DAS (2.32, 49.6 and 0.72, respectively) were also significantly increased with the same treatment. Yield target at 50 q ha^-1 under SSNM practice significantly increased the number of effective tillers m^-2 (276.1), number of grains panicle^-1 (39.9), grain weight panicle^-1 (1.80 g), test weight (44.9 g), grain (50.2 q ha^-1) and straw (73.8 q ha^-1) yields in wheat. Further, it resulted in higher gross (Rs. 1,44,482 ha^-1) and net (Rs. 92,527 ha^-1) returns and B:C ratio (2.78).