Impact of UREAStable on Soil Property, Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Yield of Durum Wheat under Balanced Fertilizer Application

Wheat requirement of nitrogen for plant growth, and crop yields and quality depends upon substantial N inputs. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out at Gimbichu district in 2017 and 2018 main cropping season with the objective of evaluating the overall performance of applying slow-release/UREAstable fertilizer over the conventional urea fertilizer for durum wheat production, and to determine optimum rates of slow-release urea fertilizer for wheat productivity. The treatments consisted of Control, 90 kg N ha-1 from conventional urea applied in split, 90 kg N ha-1 from UREAstable applied once at planting, 90 kg N ha-1 from UREAstable applied in split, 45 kg N ha-1 from UREAstable applied once at planting, 45 kg N ha-1 from UREA stable applied in split form, 135 kg N ha-1 from UREA stable applied in split form, 135 kg N ha-1 from conventional UREA applied in split form and 135 kg N ha-1 from UREAstable applied once at planting. The results revealed that plant height, spike length, Tiller number, grain yield, biomass yield, harvest index and grain and straw uptake were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the application of slow release and conventional urea fertilizer. The highest spike length (3.8cm), Tiller number (2.1), grain yield (2205 kg ha-1), biomass yield (6968 kg ha-1) and nitrogen grain straw uptake (35.6 kg N ha-1) were recorded from 135kg N ha-1 urea stable fertilizer applied in split form followed by application of 135 kg N ha-1 conventional urea fertilizer applied in split form. While, maximum straw nitrogen uptake was obtained from application of 135 kg N ha-1 conventional urea fertilizer applied in split form. Therefore, taking the findings of the present study consideration it may be concluding that farmers can use 135 kg N ha-1 UREAstable fertilizer to improve nitrogen use efficiency and productivity of wheat in the study area in addition to conventional urea fertilizer. However, further research may be required at various locations to come up with an inclusive recommendation.