Response of Maize-Wheat Cropping System to NPK in Low Hills of Himachal Pradesh

An on-farm experiment was conducted in sub-tropical low hills zone of Himachal Pradesh to study the response of major plant nutrients in maize-wheat cropping sequence. Five treatments viz. control, N, NP, NK and NPK at recommended rates to the component crops were evaluated at seventeen locations for the two consecutive cropping seasons of 2007-08 and 2008-09. Results of the study revealed that application of recommended dose of NPK resulted in significantly higher grain yield of maize and wheat, maize equivalent yield, gross return and net return over rest of the treatments. Recommended NPK resulted in 85% and 53% higher maize grain equivalent yield and INR 30150 and INR 24626 more net return over control and recommended N, respectively. The response in terms of kg grain per kg of nutrient applied was higher for applied phosphorus (20.85 kg maize grain equivalent) followed by potash (19.19) and nitrogen (5.69).