Abstract
Zinc (Zn) is one of the seventeen essential nutrients required for proper growth and development of plants. Majority of soils of India (about 43% of its cultivated soil) are deficient in Zn. Long-term fertilizer experiments (LTFE) are the perfect platform to investigate the impact of integrated nutrient management (INM) over a long period of time on Zn availability and uptake by crops. With this aim, soil samples were collected from an on-going 47 year-old longterm fertilizer experiment at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi after harvesting of wheat during April, 2018. The selected fertilizer and manurial treatments includes control, N alone, NP, NPK, 150% NPK, NPK+Zn and NPK+FYM were studied. Results of the study reveal that yield of wheat, Zn content and uptake varied from 1.95-5.58 t/ha, 29.8-42.3 mg/kg, and 96.5-368 g/ha, respectively, across the nutrient management practices. It was also found that residual Zn was the major fraction in soil which accounted for 86-90% of the total Zn followed by oxide bound Zn (5.4-9.2%), organically bound Zn (1.9-3.8%), carbonate bound Zn (0.34-0.82%) and water soluble plus exchangeable Zn (0.26-0.58%). Grain yield of wheat was at par in NPK+Zn and NPK+FYM indicating that similar response of the applied Zn as compared to integrated nutrient management. Thus, NPK+Zn are the best option for producing Zn-fortified grains and sustainable crop production.
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