Performance of wheat (Triticum aestivum) as influenced by tillage, varieties and precision nitrogen management

The field experiment was conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab during rabi of 2014- 15 and 2015-16 to assess various precision nutrient management practices in different varieties of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under different tillage systems. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The main plot consisted of the combination of two tillage systems [conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT)] and two varieties (WH 1105 and HD 2967) and the sub plots consisted of six nitrogen management practices, viz. Control, SSNM-NE (N170), SSNM-NE+GS (N153/158), N120 before Irrigation, N120 after Irrigation, N Rich (N180)]. Different tillage practices and varieties gave statistically similar grain yield, however, in terms of economics, ZT recorded 8.4% higher net returns than CT. Among nitrogen management practices, N rich (N180), SSNM-NE (N170) and SSNM NE+GS (N153/158) recorded significantly higher grain yield (53.7 q/ha) compared to other treatments. SSNM NE+GS (N153/158) recorded 17.3 and 18.7% higher grain yield compared to N120 application before and after irrigation, respectively, whereas, it recorded 89.2 and 130.5% higher grain yield and net returns, respectively, than no N control.