Assessing Efficiency and Economics of Different Sources of Phosphorus in Alkaline Calcareous Soils for Wheat Production

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient needed for plant growth, root development and grain production. Application of humic acid (HA) is considered to improve the plant growth and enhances stress tolerance. The decrease in amount of arable land and hiking prices of chemical fertilizers are a huge challenge for farmers. The prices of phosphatic fertilizers, especially the diammonium phosphates (DAP) urge the need to explore the cheaper sources of P. Therefore a three year field study was conducted to compare the efficiency and economics of phosphoric acid (PA) with two other traditional sources of P viz. single super phosphate (SSP) and DAP for optimum wheat grain production. Six treatments applied were Viz. Control, recommended dose (RD) of P from SSP, RD of P from DAP, RD of P from phosphoric acid (PA), RD of P from SSP + HA, RD of P from DAP +