Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(3): 2055-2062 2055 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.703.241 Effect of Phosphorus, Zinc and Iron on Yield and Quality of Wheat in Western Rajasthan, India Ram Chandar Jat, Yogesh Sharma, R.K. Jakhar* and R.K. Sharma Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Swami Keshwanad Rajasthan Agriculture University, Bikaner, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.)] is the second most important food grain crop in India ranking next to rice (Oryza sativa L.) contributing about 35% of the food grain production in India. India occupies second position next to China in the World with regard to area 30.96 million hectares and production 88.94 million tones with average productivity of 28.72 q ha -1 of wheat (Anonymous, 2014-15). In India, main wheat growing states are UP, Punjab, Haryana, M.P., Rajasthan and Bihar. In Rajasthan, wheat has an area of 2.94 million hectares with the production of 9.86 million tonnes. The average productivity of wheat in the state is 33.65 q ha -1 (Anonymous, 2014-15). This clearly indicates that in spite of considerable improvement in genetic potential of the crop, productivity is still very poor in the country as well as in the state of Rajasthan. The high International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 03 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com A field experiment was carried out during two consecutive rabi seasons of 2009-10 and 2010-11 at the Agronomy farm, College of Agriculture, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner to find out the effect of phosphorus, zinc and iron on yield and quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Loamy sand soils of Western Rajasthan with ten treatments comprising 4 levels of phosphorus (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg ha -1 ) and zinc (0, 3 and 6 kg ha -1 ) in main plots and 3 levels of iron (0, 3 and 6 kg ha -1 ) in split- plot design with three replications. Application of phosphorus up to 40 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 significant]y increased the grain, straw and biological yields beyond which it increased non-significantly and registered a mean increase of 26.2, 30.6 and 28.8 per cent, respectively over control. Application of phosphorus @ 40 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 , 3 kg Zn ha -1 and of 6 kg Fe ha -1 significantly increased the chlorophyll content of wheat at flowering stage and protein content of grains in wheat during both the years of investigations and in pooled analysis. Whereas, Application of higher doses of phosphorus, zinc and iron did not had significant effect on total sugar content of grain and crude fibre content. Keywords Phosphorus, Zinc, Iron, Yield, Chlorophyll content, Protein content, Wheat Accepted: 16 February 2018 Available Online: 10 March 2018 Article Info