IMPACT OF UREASE INHIBITOR (NBPT) AND HERBICIDE ON WHEAT YIELD AND QUALITY

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of urease inhibitor N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT - “Agrotain”) and herbicide on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain yield and protein contents. The application of both urea with herbicide and urea with urease inhibitor significantly increased grain protein contents compared with urea treatment ALONE. Similarly NBPT treated urea with herbicide increased grain yield by 20%. Similarly, NBPT treated urea with herbicide produced significantly higher protein contents by 15% compared with urea alone or other treatments. These results suggested that both NBPT and herbicide together executed better than urea alone, probably by increasing fertilizer use-efficiency through controlled urea hydrolysis and weeds competition. A delay in urea hydrolysis by NBPT and reduced weeds competition by herbicides provided a maximum opportunity for direct plant uptake of an increased proportion of the applied urea-N than in the case of urea alone. Treating urea with NBPT and herbicide has the potential to improve urea efficiency by increasing productivity as well as improving quality.