NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY IN MAIZE (Zea mays L.

) BASED CROPPING SYSTEM UNDER DRIP FERTIGATION DRIP FERTIGATION: A MEAN TO ECONOMIZE NUTRIENTS IN MAIZE BASED CROPPING SYSTEM

K. RAMAH*, P. SANTHI and K. PONNUSWAMY Department of Agronomy Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore 641 003

Email: kramah@rediffmail.com
Field experiments were conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, from July 2006 to August 2007 to study the effect of varying irrigation regimes and fertilizer levels in maize based cropping system. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The experiment consisted of 3 irrigation regimes in main plots viz., I 1 - Drip irrigation at 75 % WRc (computed water requirement of crop), I2 - Drip irrigation at 100 % WRc, I3 - Drip irrigation at 125 % WRc and 4 fertilizer levels in sub plots viz., F 1 - 75 % RDF, F2 - 100 % RDF, F3 - 125 % RDF and F4 - Drip irrigation + 100 % RDF by soil application. Drip irrigation at 100 per cent WRc and fertigation at 75 per cent RDF resulted in higher nutrient use efficiency. Significantly the lowest nutrient use efficiency was recorded by 125 per cent WRc and fertigation. This clearly showed that fertigation through drip at 100 per cent WRc coupled with 75 per cent RDF has exhibited higher response and efficiencies from the applied fertilizers than that of higher dose of 125 per cent RDF. Keywords : Cropping system, drip Irrigation, fertigation, maize, nutrient use efficiency

INTRODUCTION The sixties saw the rapid development of agriculture in India through the intensive use of modern agricultural inputs such as water, energy, fertilizer, chemicals and high-yielding crop varieties. The input-based strategy was successful in that the agricultural production increased three-fold during the past four decades. But predominant use of water and chemicals resulted in a paradoxical situation in which soils in the Northern Plains turned saline, whereas in the South, the water table went down due to excessive pumping. Improper management of water has contributed extensively to the current water scarcity and pollution problems in many parts of the world, and is also a serious challenge to future food security and environmental 1

sustainability. Addressing these issues requires an integrated approach to soil-water-plantnutrient management at the plant-rooting zone. One of these technologies is fertigation, which is the direct application of water and nutrients to plants through a drip irrigation system. The introduction of simultaneous micro-irrigation and fertilizer application (fertigation) opens new possibilities for controlling water and nutrient supplies to crops besides maintaining the desired concentration and distribution of nutrients and water into the soil (Bar-Yosef, 1999). When fertilizer is applied through drip, it is observed that beside the yield increase, about 30 per cent of the fertilizer could be saved (Sivanappan and Ranghaswami, 2005). Fertigation provides the essential nutrients directly to the active root zone, thus minimizing the loss of expensive nutrients which ultimately helps in improving the productivity and quality of farm produce. There was an increase in the use efficiency of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to 95, 45 and 80 per cent, respectively (Satisha, 1997). Increasing prices of N fertilizers and potential effects of excessive use of N fertilizer on environmental pollution of surface water and ground water make it necessary to use N more efficiently without seriously reducing crop production. Corn is one of the largest user of N fertilizer and timing of application is still one of the most effective techniques to improve N-use efficiency (Jung et al., 1972). Better management of water by frequent application of small and calculated amounts during the growth cycle helps to maintain N in the root zone and improves N efficiency (Miller et al., 1981). MATERIALS AND METHODS Field experiments were conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, from July 2006 to August 2007 to study the effect of varying irrigation regimes and fertilizer levels in maize based cropping system. The experimental soil was texturally classified as sandy clay loam and the available status of nitrogen in the soil was low, with medium phosphorus and high in potassium. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The experiment consisted of 3 irrigation regimes in 2

main plots viz., I1 - Drip irrigation at 75 % WRc (computed water requirement of crop), I 2 - Drip irrigation at 100 % WRc, I3 - Drip irrigation at 125 % WRc and 4 fertilizer levels in sub plots viz., F1 - 75 % RDF, F2 - 100 % RDF, F3 - 125 % RDF and F4 - Drip irrigation + 100 % RDF by soil application. One control treatment with conventional furrow irrigation and soil application of 100 per cent recommended dose of fertilizer was also included for comparison. The drip irrigation and fertigation was scheduled once in three days as per the treatment schedule for each crop in the cropping system. The test crops chosen for the cropping system were Maize (CoHM(5)), Sunflower (Co4) and Beetroot (Ruby Queen). During July to October 2006, hybrid maize was grown as test crop with a spacing of 75 / 45 x 20 cm in paired row technique. While during January to March 2007, the test crop was sunflower grown in the same field with a spacing of 75 / 45 x 30 cm followed by beetroot during June to August 2007 with a spacing of 20 x 15 cm (four rows), so as to maintain the recommended population. In the farmers method (furrow irrigation), spacing of 60 x 20 cm, 60 x 30 cm and 30 x 10 cm were followed in ridges and furrow system for maize, sunflower and beetroot respectively. The fertilizer sources for supplying NPK through drip irrigation were urea, mono ammonium phosphate (12:61:0 NPK) and muriate of potash, respectively. Fertigation was done through ventury, once in three days starting from 12 DAS to 71 DAS for maize, 12 DAS to 62 DAS for sunflower and 12 DAS to 49 DAS for beetroot which was regulated by taps provided near the off take points of the sub main. The partial factor productivity (Pfp) from applied nutrients is a useful measure of nutrient use efficiency because it provides integrative index that quantifies total economic output related to utilization of all nutrients resources in the system (Cassmen et al., 1996). It is the ratio of yield in kg ha-1 to applied nutrients and stated as, Y Pfp = Nr

Where, Y is the yield in kg ha-1 and Nr is the amount of fertilizer nutrients applied kg ha-1. 3

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The nutrient use efficiency of maize, sunflower and beetroot under drip fertigation are presented in the Tables 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Significant variation was observed for nutrient use efficiency of maize, sunflower and beetroot for irrigation regimes and fertilizer levels (Fig. 1, 2 and 3). Drip irrigation at 100 per cent WRc resulted in higher nutrient use efficiency and lowest was recorded by 125 per cent WRc. Among the fertilizer levels, though the yield and other growth characters were low under 75 per cent RDF, the nutrient use efficiency was significantly higher in this treatment, followed by 100 per cent RDF. Significantly the lowest nutrient use efficiency was recorded by 125 per cent RDF which recorded higher yield and yield parameters. This clearly showed that fertigation through drip at 100 per cent WRc coupled with 75 per cent RDF has exhibited higher response and efficiencies from the applied fertilizers than that of higher dose of 125 per cent RDF. Nutrients may be used very effectively when applied continuously through the irrigation system at rates not exceeding the requirements of the plants, which is in agreement with the results obtained earlier by Bar-Yosef and Sagiv, 1982 and Miller et al., 1981. Availability of adequate and optimum moisture under 100 per cent WRc resulted in higher nutrient use efficiency even with 75 per cent dose of fertigation. This proves the efficiency of drip fertigation system. Lower fertilizer dose (75 per cent RDF) through drip fertigation with greater nutrient use efficiencies was in line with the findings of Raman (1995) and Dangler and Locascio, (1990). The nutrient use efficiency was lower under fertigation level of 125 per cent RDF. The reason might be that the crop uptake increases as the dosage increases and then slows down or declines after a critical limit. Excess dose of fertilizer might have resulted in high leaching loss and denitrification of applied fertilizers though the yield was high under excess fertigation level. This reveals that applying excess fertilizer leads to soil pollution due to the leached out nutrients, so optimum dose of 100 per cent RDF was sufficient to achieve higher yield by 4

reducing the leaching of the nutrients and preventing the soil pollution to some extent. Ryden and Lund (1980) hypothesized that the high water and N inputs commonly used for vegetables created conditions conducive to denitrification. Efficiency of nutrients was decreased with increased level of nutrients. Mohammad (2004) reported that PFP (partial factor productivity) decreased with increasing rates of fertigation. Nitrogen uptake increased with N rate, but it is obvious that N use efficiency decreased with increasing the N rate (Thompson and Doerge, 1996b and Iqbal et al., 2003). Under continuous fertigation of P in corn the yield was increased along with decreased P application rates. In addition to increased efficiency of P fertilization, an important consequence would be a reduction in environmental contamination due to P transport into ground and surface water from agricultural sources (Ben-Gal and. Dudley, 2003). The favourable effect on nutrient use efficiency was well pronounced under drip fertigation when compared to surface irrigation. Drip fertigation with water soluble fertilizers resulted in increased nutrient use efficiency than conventional application of normal fertilizers under surface irrigation. This might be due to the greater mobility and availability of nutrients to the root zone of the crops under drip fertigation, since water soluble fertilizers contained readily available form of nutrients. Better management of water by frequent application of small, calculated amounts during the growth cycle helps to maintain N in the root zone and improves N efficiency (Miller et al., 1981). Drip irrigation with water soluble fertilizers at 75 and 100 per cent RDF resulted in higher nutrient use efficiency compared to surface application of RDF with drip irrigation. These findings were in accordance with the findings of Debashis Chakraborty et al. (1999). Though we have applied the entire quantity of fertilizers in surface applied plots (F4 treatment), the crop uptake was low and so the nutrients were not utilized efficiently. But in fertigated plots, the nutrients were supplied according to the need of the crop and dosage increased according to the stages and so the applied nutrients were utilized efficiently.

Scheduling fertilizer application based on the need of the crop once in three days offered the possibility of reducing nutrient losses, thereby increased the nutrient use efficiency when compared to conventional application methods, wherein the large quantity of fertilizers were applied as basal during sowing which led to greater loss of applied nutrients. During later growth stage, the uptake of nutrients was low due to limited availability of nutrients under surface irrigation resulting in poor nutrient use efficiency for all the major nutrients of NPK. In fertigation, nutrient use efficiency could be as high as 90 per cent compared to 40 60 per cent in conventional methods. The amount of fertilizer lost through leaching can be as low as 10 per cent in fertigation whereas it is 50 per cent in the traditional system (Solaimalai et al., 2005).

Fig.1. Influence of drip fertigation on NUE (kg kg N-1) of crops

Fig.2. Influence of drip fertigation on PUE (kg kg N-1) of crops

Fig.3. Influence of drip fertigation on KUE (kg kg N-1) of crops

REFERENCES
Bar-Yosef, B. and B. Sagiv. 1982. Response of tomatoes to N and water applied via trickle irrigation system. I. Nitrogen. Agron. J., 74: 633637. Bar-Yosef, B. 1999. Advances in fertigation. Adv. Agron., 65: 177. Ben-Gal, A. and L. M. Dudley. 2003. Phosphorus availability under continuous point source irrigation. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 67: 1449-1456. Cassmen, K.U., G.C. Gines, M.A. Dizon, M.I. Samson and J.M. Alcantace. 1996. Nitrogen use efficiency in tropical low land rice system. Contribution from indigenous and applied nitrogen. Field Crop Res., 47: 1-12. Dangler, J.M. and S.J. Locasscio. 1990. Yield of trickle-irrigated tomatoes as affected by time of N and K application. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 115: 585 589. Debashis Chakraborty, Anil Kumar Singh, Ashwani Kumar and Monoj Khanna. 1999. Movement and distribution of water and nitrogen in soil as influenced by fertigation in broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica L.). J. Water Management, 7(1&2): 8-13. Iqbal, Z., A.l. Latif, S. Ali and M. Mohsin Iqbal. 2003. Effect of fertigated phosphorus on P use efficiency and yield of wheat and maize. Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol., 25(6): 697-702. Jung, P.E., Jr., L.A. Peterson and L.E. Schrader. 1972. Response of irrigated corn in time, rate and source of applied N on sandy soils. Agron. J., 64: 668-671. Miller, R.J., D.E. Rolston, R.S. Raushkolb and D.W. Wolfe. 1981. Labelled nitrogen uptake by dripirrigated tomatoes. Agron. J., 73: 265-270. Mohammad, M.J., 2004. Utilization of applied nitrogen and irrigation water by drip-fertigated squash as determined by nuclear and traditional techniques. Nutr. Cycl. Agroecosyst, 68: 111. Raman S. 1995. Research on plasticulture. In: Gujarat Annual Progress Report. Gujarat Agricultural University, Gujarat, India, pp. 1012. Ryden, J.C., and L.J. Lund. 1980. Nature and extent of directly measured denitrification losses from some irrigated vegetable crop production units. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44: 505511. Satisha, G.C. 1997. Fertigation new concept in Indian Agriculture, Kissan World, 29-30. Sivanappan, R.K. and M.V. Ranghaswami. 2005. Technology to take 100 tons per acre in Sugarcane. Kisan World, 32(10): 35-38. Solaimalai, A., M. Baskar, A. Sadasakthi and K. Subburamu. 2005. Fertigation in high value crops A review. Agric. Rev., 26(1): 1 13. Thompson, T.L. and T.A. Doerge. 1996b. Nitrogen and water interactions in subsurface trickle-irrigated leaf lettuce: II. Agronomic, Economic and Environmental outcomes. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 60: 168-173.

Table 1. Effect of drip fertigation on nutrient use efficiency (kg kg NPK-1) in maize Nitrogen use efficiency Treatments F1 F2 F3 F4 Mean I1 57.2 46.3 38.7 42.7 46.2 I SEd CD (p=0.05) Surf. Irrgn. 39.9 SI vs IF 1.87 3.47 1.20 3.34 I2 59.7 49.7 41.4 44.0 48.7 F 1.17 2.45 SEd I3 53.6 44.0 36.6 39.8 43.5 I at F 2.13 NS F at I 2.02 NS Mean 56.8 46.7 38.9 42.2 Phosphorus use efficiency I1 115.5 92.5 77.4 85.3 92.7 I 2.43 6.73 79.9 3.26 6.79 I2 120.5 99.5 82.9 88.1 97.7 F 2.35 4.93 SEd I3 108.1 88.0 73.1 79.7 87.2 I at F 4.28 NS F at I 4.07 NS Mean 114.7 93.3 77.8 84.4 I1 115.5 92.5 77.4 85.3 92.7 I 2.43 6.73 79.9 3.26 6.79 Potassium use efficiency I2 120.5 99.5 82.9 88.1 97.7 F 2.35 4.93 SEd I3 108.1 88.0 73.1 79.7 87.2 I at F 4.28 NS F at I 4.07 NS Mean 114.7 93.3 77.8 84.4

CD (p=0.05)

CD (p=0.05)

CD (p=0.05)

I1 I2 I3 SI

75 % WRc 100 % WRc 125 % WRc Surface irrigation

F1 F2 F3 F4

75 % RDF through drip 100 % RDF through drip 125 % RDF through drip Drip irrigation + 100 % RDF by soil application

Table 2. Effect of drip fertigation on nutrient use efficiency (kg kg NPK-1) in sunflower

Nitrogen use efficiency Treatments F1 F2 F3 F4 Mean I1 58.0 48.5 41.0 42.5 47.5 I SEd CD (p=0.05) Surf. Irrgn. 36.2 SI vs IF
I1 I2 I3 SI -

Phosphorus use efficiency I1 116.0 96.9 82.1 85.0 95.0 I2 122.6 103.9 86.9 85.8 99.8 F 3.62 7.60 SEd 72.5 5.82
F1 F2 F3 F4 -

Potassium use efficiency I1 116.0 96.9 82.1 85.0 95.0 I2 122.6 103.9 86.9 85.8 99.8 F 3.62 7.60 SEd 72.5 5.82 I3 114.4 92.2 75.6 74.8 89.3 I at F 5.97 NS F at I 6.26 NS Mean 117.6 97.7 81.5 81.9

I2 61.3 51.9 43.4 42.9 49.9 F 1.81 3.80 SEd 1.59

75 % WRc

I3 57.2 46.1 37.8 37.4 44.6 I at F 2.98 NS

Mean 58.8 48.8 40.8 40.9

I3 114.4 92.2 75.6 74.8 89.3 I at F 5.97 NS

Mean 117.6 97.7 81.5 81.9

F at I 3.13 NS

I 2.49 6.91

F at I 6.26 NS

I 2.49 6.91

1.24 3.45

CD (p=0.05) 3.27

CD (p=0.05) 10.43

CD (p=0.05) 10.43

75 % RDF through drip 100 % RDF through drip 125 % RDF through drip Drip irrigation + 100 % RDF by soil application

100 % WRc 125 % WRc Surface irrigation

Table 3. Effect of drip fertigation on nutrient use efficiency (kg kg NPK-1) in beetroot Nitrogen use efficiency Treatments I1 I2 I3 Mean Phosphorus use efficiency I1 I2 I3 Mean I1 Potassium use efficiency I2 I3 Mean 10

F1 F2 F3 F4 Mean

188.9 166.6 148.3 138.9 160.7 I

215.8 170.6 145.2 157.7 172.3 F 6.01 12.64 SEd

188.6 150.6 124.7 137.6 150.4 I at F 9.73 NS

197.8 162.6 139.4 144.7

141.7 124.9 111.2 104.2 120.5

161.9 127.9 108.9 118.3 129.2 F 4.51 9.48 SEd

141.5 113.0 93.5 103.2 112.8 I at F 7.29 NS

148.3 121.9 104.5 108.5

226.7 199.9 178.0 166.7 192.8

259.0 204.7 174.2 189.2 206.8 F 7.22 15.16 SEd

226.4 180.8 149.6 165.1 180.5 I at F 11.67 NS

237.3 195.1 167.3 173.7

F at I 10.42 NS

I 2.72 7.56 90.8

F at I 7.81 NS

I 4.36 12.09 145.3

F at I 12.50 NS

SEd CD (p=0.05) Surf. Irrgn.

3.63 10.08 121.1

CD (p=0.05) 16.82
F1 F2 F3 F4 -

CD (p=0.05) 12.72

CD (p=0.05) 18.61

SI vs IF
I1 I2 I3 SI -

8.55
75 % WRc 100 % WRc 125 % WRc

6.13

9.44

75 % RDF through drip 100 % RDF through drip 125 % RDF through drip Drip irrigation + 100 % RDF by soil application

Surface irrigation

11