Evaluation of Liquid Nano Urea Fertilizer for Enhancing Yield, Yield Attributes and Economic Performance in Sugarcane Plant-ratoon Cycle

Abstract

A field experiment on “evaluation of liquid nano urea fertilizer for enhancing yield, yield attributes and economic performance in sugarcane plant-ratoon cycle” was carried out during rabi of 2021-22 (plant crop) and 2022-23 (ratoon crop) at Navsari (Gujarat). The experiment was laid out in randomized block design including eight treatments with three replication, comprising from nitrogen levels for soil application with foliar spray of nano urea and urea in both plant-ratoon system of sugarcane. The results of experiments in respect to the both individual plant crop and ratoon crop season as well as in pooled analysis of both seasons of sugarcane, yield attributes such as No. of millable cane, No. of internodes/cane, cane girth and single cane weight as well as yield parameters viz., millable cane yield and green top yield were found to be significant highest with the application of 75% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) + 2 spray of liquid nano urea at 90 and 180 DAP (T3) which was at par with T2 and T4. However, millable cane significantly increased 67.25%, 62.62% and 52.53% during plant crop season, 96.78%, 93.19% and 78.89% during ratoon crop season as well as 79.51, 75.31 and 63.47% in pooled analysis with the treatments T3, T2 and T4, respectively as compare to absolute control. During both plant crop and ratoon crop season, an application 75% RDN + 2 spray of liquid nano urea at 90 and 180 DAP (T3) recorded higher net returns (285956 and 295835 ₹/ha, respectively) and benefit: cost ratio (2.49 and 3.77, respectively). It concluded that for achieving higher yield and net monetary returns in sugarcane plant-ratoon cultivation should be fertilized with 100 % of recommended P2O5 and K2O + 75 % RDN + two sprays of either liquid nano urea @ 4 ml/L or 2 % urea at 90 and 180 DAP of plant crop and DAR of ratoon crop. This application effectively replaces the 25% of recommended dose of nitrogen while matching the performance of the 100% RDN treatment.