Maize is one of the most important cereals that has immense use in food and livestock industries. It is a highly fertilizer-dependent crop, whereas less availability of fertilizers reduces maize growth and productivity. Nitrogen is amongst the topmost macronutrients required for proper growth, physiological functions, amino acid and protein production under diverse climatic conditions. However, normal urea granules have significant environmental losses, which also affect the crop yield. Coated urea application could be a promising option to counteract urea losses and increase nitrogen uptake and nitrogen use efficiency. For this, two-factor research trial viz., Factor A (source of urea coatings), SOUC₁= simple urea, SOUC₂= boron coated urea and Factor B (doses of application), ND₀= Control (no application), ND₁= 75% of recommendation, ND₂= 100% of recommendation, ND₃= 125% of recommendation, was conducted at University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. The results showed that increasing urea doses improved maize height (16.42%), cob length (32.66), grains rows/cob (26.32), grains/cob (11.67), thousand-grain weight (16.94), grain yield (29.29), biological yield (13.03), and harvest index (18.62) compared to control treatment. Moreover, grain and biological yield obtained from boron-coated urea using 100% of recommendations gave similar results as those obtained from 125% of simple urea application. Furthermore, nitrogen use efficiency was 10.54% higher in boron-coated urea-treated plants compared to simple urea.

Keywords: Coated urea, Boron, maize, yield, nitrogen use efficiency.