Impact of Humic Acid Application along with Recommended Dose of Chemical Fertilizers (NPK) on Growth and Grain Yield of Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Under Bahawalpur Conditions

Abstract

                The high cost of inorganic fertilizers and uncertainty in their availability has resulted the increased use of natural fertilizer resources for increasing crop production on sustainable basis. This experiment was conducted to determine the best dose and potential of humic acid (HA) in combination with synthetic fertilizers. The experiment was conducted under the climatic conditions of Bahawalpur to find the effect of humic acid on yield and yield components of wheat crop (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Juahar-16).  Field experiments were conducted to study the potential of humic acid (HA) as a low-cost natural fertilizer and to determine its effect on the yield of wheat crop (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Naseer) at the research area of Regional Agricultural Research Institute (RARI), Bahawalpur during 2020-21. In this study, a control and four levels of humic acid (0, 4.0, 8.0, 12.0 and 16.0 kgha^-1) were applied along with recommended doses of NPK. The experimental treatments were applied in RCBD layout with three replications. All P, K and humic acid along with half N was applied at sowing while remaining half N was applied with first irrigation. Plant growth, yield parameters and yield data were recorded. Pre-sowing soil samples were collected from the field and analyzed for EC, pH, OM, Texture, P (available) and K (available). The results obtained showed that maximum yield of 5781 kgha^-1, 1000 grain weight (g) and spike length (cm) were obtained from T₅ (16 kgha^-1 HA) that was at par with T₄ (12 kg ha^-1 HA) and T₃ (8 Kg ha^-1 HA). Hence the best dose of humic acid for wheat is T₃ (8 kgha^-1 HA) that showed an increased yield by 3.63 times over the control under Bahawalpur conditions. Results suggested that effect of applied HA on plant growth with chemical fertilizers to soil increased grain yield of wheat from 1.5 to 5.45 times over the control. It was found that the highest yield was obtained in T₅ treatment and the second-best results were obtained with T₄ treatment, but it has a high cost, while treatment T₃ was the most significant economically and yielded high income when compared to other treatments. Hence, it has been concluded that HA has a great potential to increase grain yield production and to improve the soil fertility on a sustainable basis.