Evaluation of management zones for site-specific application of crop inputs

Management zones can be used as a method to apply agricultural inputs more efficiently within the field for minimizing offsite transport of agri-chemicals. a two years (2010-11 to 2011-12) field experimental study was conducted at the postgraduate agricultural research stationof the university of agriculture,faisalabad,pakistan,to evaluate management zones by applying different urea fertilizer rates. six urea fertilizer treatments were applied across all management zones; such as,t1 (173 kg-urea/ha),t2 (123 kg-urea/ha),t3 (74 kg-urea/ha),t4 (control; no urea application),t5 (variable rate of urea fertilizer application),and t6 (247 kg-urea/ha). the results indicated that evaluation based on normalized wheat yield data showed variability in grain yield emphasizing importance of management zones. the coefficients of variation (cv) were found to be 3%,6%,7%,10%,11%,and 16% for treatments t5,t2,t3,t6,t11 and t4,respectively. these results also indicated that treatment t5 (variable amount of urea fertilizer application) showed less variation across the management zones for grain yield data than those of treatments t4,t11,t6,t3 and t2,respectively. these results suggest that each management zone can be treated by applying variable amount of urea fertilizer rates for promotingsite specific application of crop inputs.