Utilization of nutrients in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) – based cropping system in the Central Plateau of Uttar Pradesh, India

A field experiment was conducted during the kharif and rabi sessions of 2015-16 and 2016-17 at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ganiwan, and Chitrakoot (U.P.). Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is drought affected and the farmers adopt different cropping system with imbalance fertilizer uses. Cereals and pulses both are known to respond well to balance fertilizer applications. If balance fertilizer can be included in the fertilizer schedule for maize, soybean, rice-wheat cropping system, not only productivity of the system can be optimized with increased cereals and pulses productivity but also improve quality of produce. The fertilizer consumption of India has increased from 0.78 million tonnes nutrients in 1965-66 to about 27.22 million tonnes nutrients in 20018-19 [17]. But in this period the cultivated crops depleted more mineral nutrients than replenishment through fertilizers, thus leaving the deficit of about 7 million tonnes of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These types of trends to nutrient deficit are still counting because of profit motivated cultivation with imbalanced uses of fertilizers and this is the major factor which has been recently observed as a decline in growth rate of food grain production and factor productivity. In spite of the use of recommended dose of fertilizers, enhance in yield is not encouraging, which exhibits that there is need to supply secondary and micronutrient in addition to major nutrient. At least five essential nutrients are of wide spread practical importance. These are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S), and zinc (Zn).
The objective was the diversification of a wheat-based cropping system with nutrient management in the Central Plateau of U.P. In the kharif season, maize, soybean, and rice crops were raised under 7 fertility levels in a randomized block design. In rabi season, wheat was grown in the same plots keeping 3 cropping systems in the main plots and 7 fertility levels in sub-plots. This 21 treatment combinations were tried in a split-plot design with 4 replications. The treatment T4: 75% NPK+VC 2 t/ha to kharif and 100% NPK to wheat recorded significantly higher total N, P and K uptake by maize (79.84, 19.85, and 144 kg/ha, respectively). The maximum NPK uptake by soybean was 340.37, 17.27, and 147.32 kg/ha, respectively. Similarly, the same treatment T4 brought about the highest NPK uptake by rice (102.02, 28.64 and 94.63 kg/ha, respectively). Thereafter T5: 75% NPK+VC 2 t/ha to kharif and 75% NPK to wheat and T6: 75% NPK+VC 2 t/ha to kharif and 50% NPK to wheat having the same dose 75% NPK+VC 2 t/ha to kharif and 50% NPK to wheat/ha performed almost equally better with respect to NPK uptake by all the kharif crops grown under wheat-based cropping system. The total biomass (grain + straw) produced by maize, soybean, and rice in T4 treatment was 101.68, 81.66, and 95.97 q/ha, respectively. The different cropping systems had no significant changes in the NPK uptake by the succeeding wheat. But amongst the residual nutrient levels, T4 recorded total N, P, and K uptake by wheat (110.37, 21.84 and 139.62 kg/ha, respectively. In this treatment, the total biomass of wheat was 103.08 q/ha. The second and third-best treatments were T5 and T6, respectively. On the other hand treatment, T1-100% NPK to kharif and 100% NPK to wheat-producing total biomass (58.29 q/ha) was recorded the lowest NPK uptake (60.29, and 11.96 and 76.96 kg/ha, respectively).