Integrated Application of Composted Agricultural Wastes, Chemical Fertilizers and Biofertilizers as an Avenue to Promote Growth, Yield and Quality of Maize in an Arid Agro-Ecosystem

Nasser Al-Suhaibani, Mostafa Selim, Ali Alderfasi and Salah El-Hendawy
Additional contact information
Nasser Al-Suhaibani: Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mostafa Selim: Field Crops Research Department, Agricultural Division, National Research Centre, 33 Bohouth Str., Dokki, Giza 12622, Egypt
Ali Alderfasi: Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Salah El-Hendawy: Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-26

Abstract: Formulating new integrated plant nutrient management (IPNM) strategies in order to sustain crop production and protect the environment has become an important issue in the present agricultural system. Therefore, a field study was carried out in the two seasons 2016 and 2017 to formulate the best IPNM strategies for improving the growth, yield, and quality of maize grown in an arid agro-ecosystem. The IPNM comprised full-dose NPK (T1); composted agricultural wastes based on cow manure (T2), poultry manure (T3), and a mixture of sheep and camel manure (T4) as activators at the rate of 5 t ha −1 for each; half-dose NPK was combined with the mixture of the three types of composted agricultural wastes at the rate of 5 t ha −1 (T5) or 10 t ha −1 (T6), and a mixture of the three types of composted agricultural wastes at the rate of 10 t ha −1 (T7), 15 t ha −1 (T8), or 20 t ha −1 (T9), either with or without biofertilizers. The results showed that, as compared to T1, T6 or T9 significantly increased different growth, yield, and quality parameters of maize by 11.4–27.3%, 0.8–31.8%, and 4.6–17.2%, while T2 significantly decreased these parameters by 2.2–17.8%, 3.5–16.7%, and 4.5–9.4%, respectively. Seed inoculation with biofertilizers significantly increased different parameters of maize by 1.8–12.9%, compared to that of the non-inoculation seed treatment. Principal component analysis showed a strong relationship between different parameters of maize and treatments T5, T6, T8, and T9 with seed inoculation. Further, a significant and linear relationship was observed between different parameters of maize and the amount of N (R 2 = 0.65–0.77), P (R 2 = 0.58–0.71), and K (R 2 = 0.63–0.73). These results indicated that any IPNM strategies that manage the NPK status and dynamics in the soil are a promising avenue for improving the growth and productivity of maize grown in the arid agro-ecosystem.

Keywords: integrated nutrient management; leaf area; organic composts; sustainable agriculture; yield attribute (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7439/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7439/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:13:p:7439-:d:587567

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().