Agronomy Journal • Volume 111, Issue 5 • 2019 1 ABSTRACT Declining soil fertility and crop yields are common in arid and semi–arid areas. Sustainable technologies that halt or reverse this trend are required to ensure food security. Te use of com- post for soil amendment should build soil resilience to drought. However, manure (which is a raw material in compost produc- tion) is used as a fuel in many semiarid regions of the world. To encourage farmers to change from using manure or composts as fuel to adopting them as soil additives, it will be necessary to demonstrate the production benefts associated with such additives. A 2-yr feld experiment was conducted in a semi-arid (steppe) desert environment in Pakistan on sandy-loamy soils. Poultry manure compost (PMC), pressmud compost (PrMC), and urea (U) were compared in a maize–maize (Zea mays L.) cropping system. Te PMC and PrMC application increased soil organic carbon (SOC) and N as well as the soil’s moisture content, but decreased the soil electrical conductivity (ECe) and pH afer 2 yr. Replacing 25% of the U with PMC increased the mineral N and mean crop growth rate by 46%, the net assimila- tion rate by 30% and the yield by 219%, compared to the con- trol. Tese results were comparable to applications of U alone and PMC with urea in a 25:75 application ratio. Tese results demonstrate that in semiarid regions, adding manure or com- post as a soil additive improves the soil’s yield potential. Core Ideas • Less/no burning qualities manure can solve the confict in using manure for energy. • Compost can reverse soil fertility and maize yield decline in semi- arid areas. • Compost with urea at 25:75 can reduce 25% use of harmful mineral fertilizer. G lobal drylands occupy nearly one-half of the world’s terrestrial land surface, amounting to ~3.12 billion hectares (Bastin et al., 2017). Tese lands have poor fertility and are marginally productive, yet dryland agri- culture is critically important to the subsistence and livelihood of millions of people (Farooq and Siddique, 2017). In Pakistan, 80% or ~ 68 million hectares of the arable land surface is classi- fed as semiarid to arid. Reduced nutrient supplies coupled with natively poor organic matter limits agriculture production on these soils (Qureshi, 2003; Shahzad et al., 2017). In addition, poor nutrient management practices (e.g., imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers and no/low use of organic manures) further exacerbate the soil fertility problem (Qureshi, 2003). Maize is a widely grown staple food crop and is utilized in biofuel production. By 2020, global demand for maize is expected to surpass that of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) and rice ( Oryza sativa L.) (Pingali, 2001). Because of its high energy and protein constituents, maize holds great promise for addressing future food security issues of the additional 2.3 billion people pro- jected to be on Earth by 2050. However, maize production in Pakistan has been declining over the past few years (Angelescu and Muhammad, 2011; Hussain et al., 2014). Declining yields intensify food insecurity and malnutrition (WHO, 2014). It is possible that the recycling of crop residues into the soil will provide a better use of resources than burning the residues Compost Amended with N Enhances Maize Productivity and Soil Properties in Semi-Arid Agriculture Shahid Iqbal,* Muhammad Saleem Arif, Haroon Zaman Khan, Tahira Yasmeen, Christian Thierfelder, Tang Li, Sehroon Khan, Sadia Nadir, and Jianchu Xu S. Iqbal, S. Khan, S. Nadir, and J. Xu, Key Lab. for Economic Plants and Biotechnology, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming-650201, Yunnan, China; S. Iqbal, S. Khan, S. Nadir, and J. Xu, East and Central Asia Regional Ofce, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), 132 Lanhei Rd, Heilongtan, Kunming 650201, Yunnan, China; S. Iqbal, S. Khan, S. Nadir, and J. Xu, Centre for Mountain Futures (CMF), 132 Lanhei Rd, Heilongtan, Kunming-650201, Yunnan, China; M.S. Arif, T. Yasmeen, Dep. of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College Univ. Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan; H.Z. Khan, Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Agriculture Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan; C. Tierfelder, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-Southern Africa Regional Ofce. P.O. Box MP 163, Harare, Zimbabwe; T. Li, College of Resources and Environmental Science, Yunnan Agricultural Univ., Kunming-650201, Yunnan, China; T. Li, College of Tobacco Science, Yunnan Agricultural Univ., Kunming-650201, Yunnan, China; S. Nadir, Dep. Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Science and Technology Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28100 Bannu, Pakistan. Received 10 Mar. 2019. Accepted 6 June 2019. *Corresponding author (shahiduaf85@gmail.com). Abbreviations: CGR, crop growth rate; ECe, electrical conductivity; HSD, honestly signifcance diference; LAI, leaf area index; NAR, net assimilation rate; OC, organic carbon; PMC, poultry manure compost; PrMC, pressmud compost; SOC, soil organic carbon; U, urea. SOIL FERTILITY AND CROP NUTRITION Published in Agron. J. 111:1–9 (2019) doi:10.2134/agronj2019.03.0176 Copyright © 2019 Te author(s). Re-use requires permission from the publisher. Published online August 1, 2019