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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 

 

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SOURCES OF FERTILIZERS ON THE YIELD AND 

YIELD COMPONENTS OF WHEAT VARIETY KOHAT-2000 UNDER 

RAINFED CONDITIONS OF KOHAT DURING 2012 

 

Sabir Gul Khattak1 --- Zahid Saleem2 --- Muhammad Ilyas3 --- Niaz Muhammad4 --- 

Javed Iqbal5 --- Muhammad Khan6 --- Zahid Iqbal7 --- Fahim Ullah Khan8 
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8Barani Agricultural Research Station Kohat 

 

ABSTRACT 

Experimental site had pH value of 7.44 with electrical conductivity of 0.14 dS/cm. Soil was 

alkaline, strongly calcareous (21.25% CaCO3), deficient in organic matter, nitrogen & phosphorus 

and adequate in potassium. It has no problem of salinity and is clay loam in texture. The grain 

yield was significantly increased due to different fertilizer combinations. The highest grain yield 

of 2133 kg ha-1was recorded by applying Nitrophos+UREA+K2SO4 @ 90-60-30 kg ha-1 

followed by 1933 and 1900 kg ha-1 obtained by applying DAP+ Ammonium sulfate+ Potassium 

sulfate combinations and DAP+URAE+K2SO4combinations respectively. 

Keywords: Wheat, Rainfed, Fertlizer doses, Yield, Yield component, Kohat-2000. 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

Soil is main reserve and store of nutrients for crops and trees which is major natural source of 

supplying food and shelter to mankind. The population in Pakistan is increasing at an alarming 

rate of more than 3%, which is putting further pressure on this natural resource. With the 

continuous cropping, soil losses its native fertility and the goal of self-sufficiency can’t be obtained 

without the addition of chemical fertilizers.  In the process of Agricultural Development, during 

the past about 63 years, the major break through of high yielding varieties of cereals coupled with 

higher rates of fertilizer application and other technological aspects like use of herbicides for 

control of weeds and insecticides for insect pests. These aspects have created concerns about their 

impact on environment. Worries about the accumulation of nitrates in drinking water and 

possible pesticide residues in our food supply have caused many people to question the value of 

major tool of modern agriculture. 

A nutrient imbalance exists when one or more nutrients are not in applied in proper ratio. 

This can cause deficiency, toxic level of one or more nutrients or just excess of a nutrient that is 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences 
2014 Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-5 
ISSN(e): 2312-6418 
ISSN(p): 2313-3716 
© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 
 
 
 
 



 

 

 
 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2014, 1(1): 1-5 

 

  

 
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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

not toxic but hinders another nutrient from performing its normal function. A constant and 

balanced supply of elements is essential to good plant growth, otherwise nutrient deficiencies, 

toxicities or other effect, will cause plant nutrients stress. So soil analysis is a better diagnostic 

tool than other methods of fertility evaluation because it gives rapid results before sowing of the 

crop. By knowing the actual status of the soil and application of balanced fertilizers, the maximum 

and economical crop production can be obtained as well as fertility of the soil could be restored. 

Nutrients are lost from the soil plant system in a number of ways including, leaching, 

volatilization, de-nitrification, precipitation and fixation by clay minerals. Considerable amount of 

nutrients are taken up from the soil in harvested crop material. For sustainable agriculture, 

fertility of the soil must be maintained by adding fertilizers to the soil both in natural and organic 

form. So it is therefore, imperative to add fertilizers to the soil either in organic or in mineral form 

to get maximum yield of the crops. 

The types and amounts of fertilizer to be applied depend on the crop to be grown and 

nutrient supplying power of soil. It has been reported that judicious and balanced fertilizer can 

increase crop yield up to 40-50%. The present experiment was designed to determine the 

optimum levels of NPK for achieving the profitable yield of improved variety Kohat-2000 under 

the agro-climatic conditions of Kohat.Application of proper amount of nitrogen is considered key 

to obtain bumper crop of wheat. Nitrogen comprises  7%  of  total  dry  matter  of  plants  and  is  

a constituent of many fundamental cell components such as nucleic acids, amino acids, enzymes, 

and photosynthetic pigments  [1]. Spilt N application had little effect on yield, but decreased 

lodging and spike population, while grain weight increased [2]. Nitrogen application at 120 

kg/ha for wheat has been recommended by various research workers [3, 4]. Geleto, et al. [5] 

reported that spike numbers and grain weight were increased with high level of nitrogen. Singh 

and Uttam [6] recorded increased grain yield with increase in nitrogen level. Chaudhry, et al. 

[7] found highest wheat genotype grain and straw yield with NPK @ 120-90-60 Kgha-1 

respectively.Bhatti, et al. [8] recorded better yield of two wheat varieties (Khushal and Maxi Pak) 

with the application of 92 Kg N, 90 Kg P and 67 kg K2O ha-1 under rainfed condition. 

 

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 

The experiment was laid out at Barani Agricultural Research Station (BARS), Kohat in RCB 

design with 3 replications. The following seven different fertilizer levels were used; 

1. 000  

2. DAP+ UREA+ Potassium sulfate  

3. DAP + Ammonium sulfate +Potassium sulfate 

4. Nitrophos + UREA +Potassium sulfate  

5. Nitrophos + ammonium sulfate + Potassium sulfate  

6. Single Super Phosphate +UREA+ potassium sulfate  

7. Single Super Phosphate + ammonium sulfate + Potassium sulfate @90-60-30, N, P2O5, 

K2O Kg/ha.  



 

 

 
 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2014, 1(1): 1-5 

 

  

 
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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 Prior to fertilizer application, a composite soil sample was collected and analyzed for 

various fertility parameters like organic matters, nitrogen, phosphorus and potash & physico-

chemical characteristics like pH, electrical conductivity, percent lime and textural class. The 

data about the effect of different sources of fertilizers on were recorded.  The crop was 

harvested on 08-05-2012. The net plot harvested was 5m2 for recording yield data. The grain 

yield data was subjected to statistical analysis by computing analysis of variance and 

employing DMRT for comparison of means using MSTAT-C.   

 

Treatment Sources of fertilizers 
T1 0-0-0 

T2 DAP+URAE+K2SO4 
T3 DAP+Amm:Sulfate+ K2SO4 
T4 NP+URAE+ K2SO4 
T5 NP+ Amm:sulfate+ K2SO4 
T6 SSP+UREA+ K2SO4 
T7 SSP+Amm: sulfate+ K2SO4 

 

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 

The physico-chemical analysis of composite soil sample indicated that the experimental site 

had pH value of 7.44 with electrical conductivity of 0.14 dS/cm. Soil was alkaline, strongly 

calcareous (21.25% CaCO3), deficient in organic matter, nitrogen & phosphorus and adequate in 

potassium. It has no problem of salinity and is clay loam in texture having sand (22%), silt (40%) 

and clay (38%). Potash and Phosphorus was recorded 160 mg/kg and 9.4 mg/kg respectively. 

(Table 1)  

 The grain yield was significantly increased due to different fertilizer combinations (Table 2). 

The highest grain yield of 2133 kg ha-1was recorded by applying Nitrophos+UREA+K2SO4 @ 

90-60-30 kg ha-1 followed by 1933 and 1900 kg ha-1 obtained by applying DAP Ammonium 

sulfate+ Potassium sulfate combinations and DAP+URAE+K2SO4combinations respectively. The 

difference between the treatment No. 2, 3 and 4 was not significant, while these treatments were 

significantly different from the treatment No. 5, 6 and 7. The lowest grain yield of 1200 kg ha-1 

was recorded in the control treatment. So, it was concluded that T4: Nitrophos +URAE+ 

Potassium sulfate combinations@ 90:60:30 Kg/ha can be recommended as a suitable 

combinations to obtain highest grain yield under the agro climatic conditions of Kohat.The 

results are in close association with Geleto, et al. [5]. Application of potassium sulphate 

increased yield, yield components and protein content of wheat cultivar [9].  

Masoume, et al. [10] reported that that potash fertilizer had a positive effect on most 

traits. Of field and laboratory traits, height, number of grains per spike, grain weight, grain 

yield. 

Ali [11] reported that that effect of potassium on grain yield was highly significant. 

Increasing the level of potassium to 100 kg/ha, increased the grain yield to 4985.3 kg/ha. The 

results also showed that effect of nitrogen on grain yield was highly significant. The grain 

yield was increased to 4800 kg/ha by the application of 80 kg/ha nitrogen. 



 

 

 
 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2014, 1(1): 1-5 

 

  

 
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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

4. CONCLUSION 

Nitrophos +URAE+ Potassium sulfate combinations@ 90:60:30 Kg/ha can be recommended 

as suitable combinations to obtain highest grain yield under the agro climatic conditions of Kohat. 

This combination is recommended for the farmers of the area. 

 

REFERENCES 

[1] R. A. Bungard, A. Wingler, J. D. Morton, and M. Andrews, "Ammonium can stimulate nitrate and 

nitrite reductase in the absence of nitrate in clematis vitalba," Plant Cell Env, vol. 22, pp. 859-866, 

1999. 

[2] M. Ayoub, S. Guertin, S. Lussier, and D. L. Smith, "Timing and levels of nitrogen fertility effects 

on spring wheat," Crop Sci., vol. 34, pp. 748-750, 1994. 

[3] O. P. Lathwal, S. Tej, and T. Singh, "Effect of irrigation and nitrogen levels on yield attributions 

and yield of wheat," Haryana J. Agron, vol. 8, pp. 69-70, 1992. 

[4] D. K. Das, T. V. Rao, and D. K. Das, "Growth and spectral response of wheat as influence by 

varying nitrogen levels and plant densities," Annual of Agric. Res, vol. 14, pp. 421-425, 1993. 

[5] T. Geleto, D. G. Tanner, T. Mamo, and G. Gebeyehu, "Response of rain fed bread and durum 

wheat to source level and timing of nitrogen fertilizer on two Ethiopian vertisole S. I. yield and 

yield components," Comm. in Soil Sci. Plant Ana, vol. 26, pp. 1773-1794, 1995. 

[6] V. P. N. Singh and S. K. Uttam, "Response of wheat cultivars to different N levels under early 

sown conditions," Crop Res, vol. 5, pp. 82-86, 1992. 

[7] G. A. Chaudhry, S. Nawaz, R. Hussain, A. Asghar, and S. R. Kashif, "Fertilizer requirements of 

new wheat genotype under rain fed condition," Pakistan J. Soil Sci, vol. 18, pp. 125-109, 2000. 

[8] A. Bhatti, A. A. Qureshi, and S. Rahman, "Effect of N alone in combination with PxK on the yield 

of wheat," Pakistan J. Agri Res, vol. 6, pp. 89-92, 1985. 

[9] S. A. Tabatabaei, S. Shams, E. Shakeri, and M. R. Mirjalili, "Effect of different levels of potassium 

sulphate on yield, yield components and protein content of wheat cultivars " Applied mathematics in 

Engineering, Management and Technology, vol. 2, pp. 119-123, 2012. 

[10] M.-M. Masoume, M. Abas, A. S. Syed, and B. Meysam "The effect of zinc and potassium on the 

quality yield of wheat under drought stress conditions," International Journal of Agriculture and Crop 

Sciences, pp. 1164-1170, 2013/6-16 2013. 

[11] R. Ali, "Effect of potassium and nitrogen on yield and yield components of dry land wheat in 

boyerahmad region of Iran," Annals of Biological Research, vol. 3, pp. 3274-3277, 2012. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 
 

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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

Table-1.Physico-chemical characteristics of experimental site at BARS, Kohat. 

Parameter Unit Value 
pH - 7.44 

ECx103 ds/cm 0.14 

CaCO3 % 21.25 
Organic Matter  % 1.035 
Nitrogen  % 0.05175 
Phosphorus mg/kg 9.4 
Potash mg/kg 160.0 
Clay % 38 

Silt % 40 
Sand % 22 
Textural Class - Clay loam 

 

Table-2.Effect of different sources of fertilizers on the grain yield of wheat variety KT- 2000 at 

BARS, Kohat. 

Treatment Sources of fertilizers R1 R2 R3 MEAN Ranking 
T1 0-0-0 1600 900 1100 1200 B 

T2 DAP+URAE+K2SO4 2400 1700 1600 1900 A 
T3 DAP+Amm:Sulfate+ 

K2SO4 
2000 2100 1700 1933 A 

T4 NP+URAE+ K2SO4 2500 2000 1900 2133 A 
T5 NP+ Amm:sulfate+ 

K2SO4 
1800 1800 1300 1633 AB 

T6 SSP+UREA+ K2SO4 1700 1600 1400 1566 AB 
T7 SSP+Amm: sulfate+ 

K2SO4 
1700 1300 1800 1600 AB 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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