Effects of phosphorus levels on growth and productivity of wheat in semi-arid conditions of Kandahar, Afghanistan Modasir Mirza Mohammad, Kakar Noor Mohammad*, Hamayoun Habibullah Farah University, Farah, Afghanistan *Email: noormohammad.kakar@yahoo.com
Online Published on 19 February, 2024. Abstract A field experiment was conducted in Kandahar, Afghanistan, during the winter season of 2019-.20 to study the effect of phosphorus levels on the growth and productivity of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The treatments consisted of five phosphorus levels (0, 40, 60, 80, and 100 kg P2O5/ha), which were evaluated in a factorial randomized block design with three replications. The soil of experiment site was sandy clay loam, slightly alkaline in reaction (pH 7.2), low available N (32.2 kg/ha NH4 and 36.2 kg NO3), medium in available P (23.0 kg/ha P2O5) and high in available K (480 kg/ha K2O). Wheat was sown at 100 kg seeds/ha with 20 cm row spacing on December 28, 2019, and the recommended doses of N and K (120 N and 30 K2O) were applied through urea equally and potassium sulfate. The full dose of K and half dose of N were given as basal, and the remaining half of N was top-dressed after the first and second irrigations. For weed control, sulfosulfuran was applied at 25 gr/ha at 35 DAS. The results revealed that maximum and significantly higher growth and yield attributes, such as plant height, dry matter accumulation, number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike, and1000-grain weight were higher with 60 kg P2O5/ha, grain yield (3.52 tons/ha), straw yield (4.84 tons/ha) and biological yield (8.35 tons/ha), water use efficiency (9.80 kg/ha/mm), production efficiency (29.3 kg/ha/day) and monetary efficiency(667 AFN/ha/day), gross returns (AFN 115963/ha), net returns (AFN 80143 /ha) and B: C ratio (2.22) were also recorded significantly higher with 60 kg P2O5/ha. Top Keywords Phosphorus, Productivity, Sulfosulfuran, Wheat. Top |