Comparison of Organic, Chemical and Biofertilizers on Growth and Yield of Corn under Drought Stress in Bam and Fahraj Regions

Fertilizers stimulate physiological and biochemical processes in plants by supplying essential nutrients, resulting in increased growth and improved yield. In order to compare organic, chemical and bio-fertilizers on corn growth and yield under drought stress in Bam and Fahraj regions, a split-plot experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications was conducted during the 2019-2020 growing season. Irrigation regimes were assigned as the main plot at three levels (control, moderate and severe drought stress) and fertilizer treatments were allocated to sub-plots at six levels (no fertilizer, chemical fertilizer, Barvar-2 phosphate biofertilizer, nitroxin, vermicompost and an integration of the three fertilizers). Traits that were significant in both regions were analyzed through compound analysis over locations. Analysis of variance showed that the single effects of fertilizer and drought stress in Bam and Fahraj regions were significant at 1% probability level and the interaction effect of irrigation and fertilizer on corn grain yield was significant at 5% probability level. Mean comparison indicated that the highest grain yields of 12.12341 and 6.10840 kg/ha in Bam and Fahraj, respectively, were achieved with integrated application of chemical fertilizer, biofertilizer and vermicompost under well-watered conditions. Combined analysis results demonstrated that the location effect on grain yield was significant at 1% level, with Bam at 4.9687 kg/ha surpassing Fahraj at 3.8576 kg/ha.