Abstract
The research study was conducted on farmer’s field in village Dhakki, Dera Ismail Khan (KPK) during Kharif season, 2011 to determine the effect of integrated nutrient management on the growth and yield of direct seeded rice. Treatments were assigned randomly using RCBD having three replications. IR-6 was used as test variety. The net plot size was 2.5 x 5(12.5m2 ) with10 rows. Treatments were T1 = wheat straw @ 5 t ha-1 alone, T2 = wheat straw @ 5 t ha-1 + P2O5 @ 30 Kg ha-1 , T3 = wheat straw @ 5 t ha-1 + P2O5 @ 60 Kg ha-1 and T4 = P2O5 @ 90 Kg ha-1 alone. Effect of wheat residues/straw and different phosphorus levels showed significant variations for plant height (cm), productive tillers m-2 , number of grains panicle-1 , panicle length (cm),1000 grain weight (g) and that the treatment T2 (wheat straw @ 5 t ha-1 + P2O5 @ 30 Kg ha-1 ) performed the best and gave the maximum paddy yield of 7.35 t ha-1 . It was concluded that selection of suitable cultivars, timely planting and accurate use of phosphorus with organic fertilizers, rates of fertilizer can be reduced by 50% thus sustaining the agricultural productivity and reducing environmental degradation.