Effect of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer on the Water Use Efficiency and Yield Attributes of Wheat under Heavy Textured Soil

The soils of Dera Ismail Khan (D.I. Khan) are calcareous in nature with low organic matter. The area also falls in hot arid environment where organic amendments and efficient water used to reduce the input cost and improve crop yield. A field experiment was conducted at Arid Zone Research Centre (AZRC), D. I. Khan during year 2014 –15 and 2015–16 to investigate the water use efficiency and response of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop to organic and inorganic fertilizers on a heavy textured soil. The treatments used in the experiment include compost @5 t ha^-1, cattle manure @ 5 t ha^-1, compost + cattle manure each @ 2.5 t ha^-1, NPK @ 150:120: 90 and control (without amendments), replicated four times. The results revealed that organic and inorganic amendments, irrespective of their kind and combinations, exerted significant (p≤0.05) variation in plant growth, yield parameters of wheat and water use efficiency. The inorganic fertilizer gave significantly higher total dry matter, grain and straw yield and also due to the greater grain yield the water use efficiency calculated was greater in the NPK treatment. Bulk density, porosity and organic matter were significantly improved by the cattle manure and compost treatments. The moisture content and water holding capacity revealed non – significant effect of the treatments. It may be concluded from the current research that water use efficiency in term of grain yield was higher in the treatment plots receiving mineral fertilizer but compost and manures were comparable and showed significant improvement in the soil properties.