Comparative study of farm yard manure and humic acid in integration with inorganic-N on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) growth and yield

Abstract

Farmyard manure (FYM) is bulky and humic acid (HA) is compact organic source of plant nutrition. The objective of this study was to investigate the notion that 1 Mg FYM is equal to that of 1 kg HA and to develop an optimized integrated fertilization program. The study was conducted at the research station of Agricultural University Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtoonkwa, Pakistan, in a randomized complete block design with split plot arrangements. FYM (18 Mg ha-1) and HA (18 kg ha-1) were in the main plots, whereas different nitrogen (N) levels (0, 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 kg ha-1) were in sub-plots. The results indicated a better performance of FYM than HA with significant (p < 0.05) differences in many parameters including plant height, leaf area index, chlorophyll content, biological yield, grain yield, and N content of grains. Of the different N levels, the best performance was observed for 100 kg N ha-1. Our present results show that 18 Mg FYM with 100 kg N ha-1 may be recommended as good sources for wheat fertilization. However, more research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of HA as an organic fertilizer and to compare higher HA rates with FYM.