Effect of Nitrogen and phosphorus nutrition at different physiological stages of soybean on yield and grain quality in Uttarakhand hills

An experiment on soybean cv. PK-416 to evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer management strategies at different stages of soybean with P on grain yield, oil and protein content of soybean, in a split plot design with the three replications was conducted at Pantnagar during Kharif, 2000 and 2001. The main plot treatments were 40 kg P₂O₅/ha, 60 kg P₂O₅/ha, 80 kg P₂O₅/ha as basal and sub-plot treatments were 20 kg N/ha as basal, 20 kg N/ha as basal + 20 kg N/ha at 60 DAS as top dressing, 20 kg N/ha as basal + 20 kg N/ha at 60 DAS + 20 kg N/ha at 75 DAS as top dressing, 40 kg N/ha as basal + 40 kg N/ha at 60 DAS at top dressing, 40 kg N/ha as basal + 40 kg N/ha at 60 DAS + 20 kg N/ha at 75 DAS as top dressing. The grain yield of soybean was significantly higher with 40 kg N/ha as basal + 40 kg N/ha at 60 DAS + 20 kg N/ha at 75 DAS along with 80 kg P₂Os/ha and resulted in 43.2 and 45.2 per cent increase over 20 kg N/ha as basal along with 40 kg P₂O₅/ha during 2000 and 2001, respectively. The oil content was maximum with 40 kg N/ha basal + 40 kg N/ha at 60 DAS with an increase of 8.99% in oil content over control. The protein content was maximum with 40 kg N/ha basal + 40 kg N/ha at 60 DAS + 20 kg N/ha at 75 DAS resulted 24.39% increase in protein content of grain over control. Thus, it can be concluded that soybean seed yield and quality can be increased with application of nitrogen at the seed filling stage.