Nitrogen-use Efficiency and Productivity of Wheat Crop

Abstract

Nitrogen is the most important nutrient element essential for growth and development of plants. Nitrogen availability is a major constraint on grain production and the main component of the carbon footprint of cereal production. Large amount of nitrogen fertilizers are being used to increase the crop production. Nitrogen fertilizers are used as an important agronomic tool to improve output, quantity as well as quality in all cultivated crops. However, current agricultural and economic environmental concerns require farmers to constantly optimize the application of nitrogen fertilizers throughout the growing season to avoid pollution by nitrates while preserving their economic margin. Over the past four decades, the doubling of agri-cultural food production worldwide has been associated with a seven fold increase in the use of nitrogen fertilizers (Hirel et al., 2007).