Paper Title
EVALUATION OF EFFICACY OF NANO NPK (6:10:4) FERTILIZER ON PRODUCTIVITY OF RICE

Abstract
Efficient fertilizer use is crucial for enhancing crop production, and there is an increasing demand for environment-friendly fertilizers that provide high nutrient value while being compatible with both soil and the environment. In response to this need, a field experiment was conducted on loamy sand soil to assess the effect of foliar and seedling treatment with nano NPK (6:10:4) in combination with 50, 75 and 100% complete fertilizer 12:32:16 on performance of rice (PR 121), at Research Farm, Department of Soil Science during Kharif 2023. The effect of two foliar nano NPK (500 ml/ha), 1st at tillering stage and 2nd during onset of flowering stage and seedling treatment (4-5 ml/l water) was compared with soil application of 100% recommended dose of fertilizers. Results revealed that maximum yield (66.5 q/ha) was observed under 100% 12-32-16 fertilizer application to soil along with 2 foliar sprays of nano NPK. The application of 100% 12-32-16 to the soil with different NPK treatments resulted in statistically (p < 0.05) similar grain yield when compared with 100% RDF application along with different nano NPK treatments. Further, the yield attributing parameters viz., number of effective tillers/plant, panicle length (cm), weight of 10 panicles (g), 1000 seed weight (g) showed linear response to the fertilizer application under all the treatment. However, numerically better yield attributing parameters were recorded under 100% 12-32-16 fertilizer to soil along with 2 foliar sprays of nano NPK which was statistically higher than that obtained under no fertilizer treatment (control). Overall, two foliar sprays of nano NPK along with different (100, 75 and 50%) fertilizer application to the soil performed better than the seedling treatment given with different concentration (100, 75 and 50%) of fertilizer application.