Asian Journal of Advances in Agricultural Research

A field experiment was accomplished from November 2018 to April 2019 at the site for agricultural research of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh to assess the effect of irrigation and nitrogen application on uptaking of primary nutrients by maize plant. A Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factors and three replications was used to execute the experiment. Four irrigation treatments (I₁, I₂, I₃ and I₄: irrigation concerning 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% of soil available water, respectively) as factor A and three nitrogen doses [N₁, N₂ and N₃: Nitrogen application at 75%, 100% and 125% of prescribed dose (PD) as per fertilizer recommendation guide (FRG)] as factor B was implemented. The crop responded significantly in uptaking N, P, K to different levels of irrigation and nitrogen. The uptake of N at its highest level (141.66 Kg ha^-1) was observed in treatment I₃N₃ but the maximum uptake of P (49.17 Kg ha^-1) and K (159.39 Kg ha^-1) were found under the treatment I₄N₂. The addition of irrigation and nitrogenous fertilizer also enhanced the N (0.08%), P (8.75 ppm) and K (0.18 meq/ 100g) content of post-harvest soils. The maximum total consumptive use of water of the crop was found to be 446 mm in I₄ treatment regardless N levels. Irrigation at 80% of soil available water using 100% N on prescribed dose (I₄N₂), appeared to be the most acceptable combination for optimal nutrient absorption by maize in the specified region.