Balanced Fertilization of Major Crops of Rainfed Area in Jordan

Justification
Fertilizer use in rainfed area in Jordan is very limited and most farmers tend to apply some manure and diammonium phosphate fertilizers. Therefore, crops in this farming system are either underfertilized or their fertilization is unbalanced. Rainfall in Jordan is low and highly variable in time and place. In some cased where the rainfall is low and poorly distributed the response to fertilization is not obtained, which make some farmers to hesitate to apply fertilization. The major rainfed filed crops in Jordan are wheat, barley, vetch, lentil and onion, while the major fruit trees is the olive which account for 76% of the total area planted with fruit trees in Jordan. The main cropping systems are cereal-fallow, cereal-legume or cereal-onion.

Objectives

1. Demonstrate the benefits of the balanced fertilization
2. Increasing awareness and transfer the knowledge of the fertilizer best management practices

Methodology
In 2016, wheat was planted in several locations representing different agroecological zones of Jordan. The following treatments were investigated in these locations:
FFP = fertilization farmer practice
NP = application of NP at a rate of
NPK = Application of balanced fertilization of NPK at a rate of