ABSTRACT

A field experiment was conducted during rabi 2023-24 on “Fertigation studies on growth and yield of maize in Ghataprabha Command Area” at AICRP (IWM), IWMRC Arabhavi. The experiment was replicated thrice in Randomized Complete Block design with ten treatments comprising varying level of fertilizers applied as basal and as water soluble fertilizers in fertigation including RDF as a check and an absolute control. The results indicated that, fertigation with 75 per cent recommended N:P2O5:K2O (water soluble fertilizers-WSF) + 25 per cent N:P2O5:K2O as basal application recorded higher grain yield (9212 kg ha-1), stover yield (12847 kg ha-1), cob weight (184.3 g), test weight (38.83 g), cob length (17.7 cm), kernel weight per cob (162 g) and cob girth (13.05 cm) nitrogen uptake (130.81 kg ha-1), phosphorous uptake (25.36 kg ha-1), potassium uptake (67.52 kg ha-1), gross returns ( 202808 ha-1), net returns ( 114142 ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (2.28) which was on par with the application of 100 per cent N, P2O5 and K2O through fertigation without basal application for grain yield (9098 kg ha-1) , stover yield (12598 kg ha-1), cob weight(173.3 g), test weight (38.13 g), cob length (17.5 cm), kernel weight per cob (156 g) and cob girth (12.88 cm), nitrogen uptake (126.28 kg ha-1), phosphorous uptake (24.57 kg ha-1), potassium uptake (64.59 kg ha-1), gross returns ( 200226 ha-1) and net returns ( 103875 ha-1). It was inferred that fertigation with 75 per cent recommended N:P2O5:K2O with application of 25 per cent recommended N:P2O5:K2O as basal dose gives 24 per cent more grain yield as compared to the application of 100 per cent recommended N:P2O5:K2O through conventional fertilizer using conventional method.