Impact of Crop Establishment and Nutrient Management on Wheat Growth under Rice-Wheat System

The rice-wheat system contributes significantly to India's food security. The system's significance is properly handled from time to time, but excessive resource consumption, yield stagnation, environmental deterioration including erosion, and nutrient mining pose the greatest challenges. To address the issue, a research was conducted with objective to see the impact of crop establishment and nutrient management on growth parameters of wheat at Banaras Hindu University's Agricultural Research Farm in Varanasi during the 2019-20 Kharif and 2020-21 Rabi seasons, respectively. The experiment plotted in a split plot statistical design with three replications and four crop establishment methods: CE1: CTPTR-CTW, CE2: CTDSR)-CT wheat, CE3: CTDSR-ZTwheat (rice residue retained), and CE4: ZTDSR-ZT wheat (residue retention in rice and wheat) crop establishment method among the main plot treatments and nutrient management i.e. FP (N1), RFD (N2) and RWCM (N3) based nutrient recommendation among the sub plot treatments. Data recorded on growth parameters i.e. plant height, number of tillers and SPAD value at different stages are presented in this paper. CE4 treatment among main plot and N3 among nutrient management practices produced higher values of plant height, number of tillers at 30, 60, 90 days after sowing and at harvest as well as higher SPAD value at 30, 60 and 90 days after sowing than the other treatments. These results might be due to better nutrient availability, better organic carbon, which leads to improved microbial activity, and better moisture availability under these treatments. It may be concluded that conservation agriculture-based crop establishment i.e. CE4: Zero-till DSR-Zero-till wheat (residue retention in rice and wheat) and RWCM-based nutrient application, may be favourable for improved growth of the wheat crop under the region of eastern Uttar Pradesh.