ORIGINAL ARTICLE Maximizing maize quality, productivity and profitability through a combined use of compost and nitrogen fertilizer in a semi-arid environment in Pakistan Shahid Iqbal . Christian Thierfelder . Haroon Zaman Khan . Hafiz Muhammad Rashad Javeed . Muhammad Arif . Muhammad Shehzad Received: 21 August 2016 / Accepted: 8 February 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract In Pakistan, low crop yields are a common problem of sandy-loam arid and semi-arid agroe- cosystems. Poor nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and widespread soil nitrogen (N) deficiency resulting from higher N losses are the main reasons for low yields. Compost may offer a nutrient source in this context as it is relatively stable, has a high NUE and crop N uptake, and may contribute to lower N losses in this region. This research conducted during 2011 and 2012, focused on application of N from poultry manure compost (PMC) and pressmud compost (PrMC) with urea in different ratios (0:0, 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100) for sustainable maize production under the semi-arid conditions of Faisal- abad. Overall, combined use of PMC and PrMC with urea in the 2 years increased the grain yield relative to the application of PMC and PrMC on their own. The greatest plant N uptake during the two years from PMC and urea at 25:75 was equivalent to mineral N management (0:100), and it resulted in maximum total grain yield (218.6%) and grain protein (19.8%). This resulted in the lowest N loss from the soil, and the largest NUE (19.1 kg kg -1 ). Economically, this treat- ment also provided the greatest net income (932 US$ ha -1 ), and a benefit cost ratio (2.1). Based on these results, PMC and urea at 25:75 was considered highly beneficial in increasing maize yield while reducing the loss of less-stable N from the soil, increasing NUE and N uptake in inherently poor soils. However, further evaluation is needed to decide whether this N nutrition strategy can be adopted on a wider scale. Keywords Compost Á Nitrogen Á Income Á Nitrogen use efficiency Á Pakistan Introduction Nitrogen (N) is one of the crucial elements for crop production to achieve high crop yields (Erisman et al. 2008). However, a widespread N deficiency in agri- cultural fields (Ladoni et al. 2015) and poor nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) as a result of higher N losses from applied fertilizers hamper crop yields. This is S. Iqbal (&) Á M. Arif Department of Agronomy, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan e-mail: shahiduaf85@gmail.com C. Thierfelder CIMMYT–Southern Africa Regional Office, P.O. Box MP 163, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe H. Z. Khan Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan H. M. R. Javeed Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Vehari, Pakistan M. Shehzad Department of Agronomy, The University of Poonch, Rawalakot, Pakistan 123 Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst DOI 10.1007/s10705-017-9829-y