ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Environmental Nanotechnology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnano.2025.1617500
This article is part of the Research TopicAgro-Nanotechnology: Advancements and Challenges in Nanofertilizers for Sustainable AgricultureView all articles
Impact of conventional and nano fertilizers on rainfed maize yield, profitability and soil nitrogen
Provisionally accepted
K A Gopinath1*
Venugopalan Visha Kumari1*
Vinod Kumar Singh1
Arun K. Shanker1
KOTHA SAMMI REDDY2
S Kundu1
BHARGAVI BUSSA1B Rajkumar1
N Lavanya1
P Chandana1B Sunitha1M R Krupashankar3
Tarunendu Singh3- 1ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India
- 2National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management (ICAR), Baramati, Maharashtra, India
- 3Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative, New Delhi, Delhi, India
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Nitrogen (N) is a vital macronutrient for maize productivity, but significant losses under rainfed conditions limit its availability and yield potential. There is a need for energy-efficient and eco-friendly fertilizers along with improved agronomic practices to enhance nutrient use efficiency, crop productivity, and profitability. An experiment was conducted under semi-arid conditions in India in a single location to evaluate the economic and environmental performance of conventional fertilizers at varying nitrogen levels [0, 50, 75, and 100% recommended rate of nitrogen (RDN)] with and without nano-urea in rainfed maize. Application of 100% recommended NPK through conventional fertilizers along with nano-urea spray (N100PK+nano-urea) recorded significantly higher yield (3026 kg ha -1 ) and economic returns (US $ ₹.4771463 ha -1 ). Notably, the N75PK + nano-urea registered comparable yield over N100PK + nano-urea and N100PK, demonstrating that two foliar sprays of nano-urea could reduce nitrogen input by 25% without yield loss. Additionally, this approach reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% and energy consumption by 14.9%, highlighting its potential for sustainable maize production. Though the results are encouraging it should be tested across crops and regions.
Keywords: Greenhouse gas emissions, Energy, Maize, nano urea, Nitrogen, rainfed farming Formatted: Indent: First line: 0 cm, Line spacing: Multiple 1.15 li, Pattern: Clear (Background 1) Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gopinath, Visha Kumari, Singh, Shanker, REDDY, Kundu, BUSSA, Rajkumar, Lavanya, Chandana, Sunitha, Krupashankar and Singh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
K A Gopinath, ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India
Venugopalan Visha Kumari, ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, India
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