Increasing the yield of maize and improving the chemical and biological properties of saline calcareous soil using a combination of nano-biofertilizer and cattle manure

Due to the growing need to increase the area under cultivation of Maize and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers to achieve sustainable agriculture, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of nano-biofertilizer as new eco-friendly technology along with cattle manure on increasing nutrient efficiency and maize yield in a saline calcareous soil with low organic matter. For this purpose, a field experiment was performed as split-plot factorial in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The factors included nano-biofertilizer at three levels of zero, 1, and 2 (Nb0, Nb1, and Nb2) ton/ha, and cattle manure in three levels 0, 10, and 20 (M0, M1, and M2) ton/ha. The results showed that the independent and interaction effects of these fertilizers on soil properties and yield and growth traits of maize were significant at 1% probability level. The results of interactions showed that Nb2M2 treatment compared to control could increase grain yield (101 %), straw weight (78 %), total yield (82.82 %), grain nitrogen (135 %), grain protein (136 %), protein yield (377 %), soil respiration (61.18 %), soil organic carbon (126.20 %), soil organic matter (125.50 %) and soil nitrogen (140.30 %). Nb1M1 treatment was able to reduce soil C/N by 22.7 %. In the case of soil EC, Nb2M0 treatment had the best performance with a reduction of 41.7 % in soil salinity. Besides, Nb0M2 treatment could reduce soil pH from 7.90 to 7.65. The results of this study showed that the use of nano-biofertilizers with organic matter while having a high potential for increasing the yield (quantitative-qualitative) of corn also can significantly improve the biological and chemical properties of saline calcareous soils.