Green Manuring for Increasing Nitrogen use Efficiency and Growth Performance of Wheat

Abstract

In the absenceoforganic matter,the soil is an inert matter and cannot sustain productivity.The soil fertility scenario of Pakistan depicts low organic matter status and low nitrogen contents andhaslow use efficiency. This study was initiated during 2017-18 to enhance soil nitrogen contents and organic matter through green manuring and augmentation of N use efficiency under agro-ecological condition of Quetta. This experiment consists of five treatments (T1= Green manuring (GM); T2 = GM +25% recommended N (30 kg N ha-1); T3 = GM+50% N (60 kg N ha-1); T4= GM+75% N (90 kg N ha-1); T5= GM+100%N (120 kg N ha-1) andthree replicationsbased on randomized complete block design (RCBD). The results revealed that all the study parameters except plant height and chlorophyll contents were improved when75and 100% recommended N were applied to wheat cropsafter green manuring. Green manuring helped in enhancing soil N level when 75% recommended N was applied because both 75 and 100% N expressed statistically at par differences for wheat traitsand yield. In addition, green manuring increased NUE by 68.9, 147.0, 126.2,and 100.8% across different N percentages(25, 50, 75and100%).However, without the addition of nitrogen fertilizer,only green manuring could notmeet the N requirement of wheat crops. Consequently, it is inferred that green manuring helped in enhancing soil organic matterand total nitrogenwhen N fertilizer was applied to the wheat crop. It is suggested that various green manure crops can be evaluated to augment SOMand TN for the succeeding crop