Boosting Wheat Yields with Amendments

The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications, and each plot area was 12 m² (4 m × 3 m). In all treatments recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) was applied except T₁ (control), where no RDN was used. The research was carried out through growing wheat variety (HD 2967) with 10 treatments in respective plots, namely labelled as T₁ (control), T₂ (RDN @ 150 kg ha⁻¹), T₃ (RDN + NBPT (N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide) @ 0.5% w/w RDN), T₄ (RDN +HQ (hydroquinone) @ 0.3% w/w of RDN), T₅ (RDN + calcium carbide @ 1% w/w of RDN), T₆ (RDN + VAM (vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza @ 10 kg ha⁻¹), T₇ (RDN + azotobacter @ 50 g kg⁻¹ seeds) T₈ (RDN + garlic powder @ 0.8% w/w of RDN), T₉ (RDN + linseed oil @ 0.06% w/w of RDN), and T₁₀ (RDN + pongamia oil @ 0.06% w/w of RDN). Each dose was finalized based on the current usage of these amendments by firms, which were applied in two splits (one at the time of sowing and the second split application 30 days after sowing).
In order to study the effect of organic and inorganic amendments together, three inorganic amendments, two bio-fertilizers, and three organic amendments were chosen based on popularity and literature review. N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (Zanin et al., 2015 (link)), hydroquinone (Modolo et al., 2018 (link)), calcium carbide (Sakariyawo et al., 2020 (link)), Garlic powder (Ramli et al., 2014 ), Linseed oil, and Pongamia oil (Majumdar, 2008 ) were mixed with urea (RDN) as per the dosage. Wheat seeds were treated with Azotobater spp. and used for sowing in T₇. Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (as per ICAR RABI Agro-Advisory for Farmers, https://icar.org.in/content/icar-rabi-agro-advisory-farmers) was applied directly into the soil during sowing with an RDN. The recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) for wheat was applied as N: P₂O₅:K₂O (150:60:40 kg ha⁻¹). Urea, single super phosphate (SSP), and muriate of potash (MOP) were used as a source of N, P₂O_5, and K₂O, respectively.