THE USE OF UREASE INHIBITOR FERTILIZERS (AGROTAIN) AND THEIR EFFECT ON CEREAL CROPS AND COTTON YIELD

Many commercial compounds exist that promise the increasing efficiency of ureafertilizers by inhibiting urease activity in soils. Such a compound gaining incommercial importance in the last decades is N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide,broadly known with its registered trade name of “Agrotain”. In this paper, theeffect of nitrogen fertilizer dressings using Agrotain versus conventional (urea)fertilizers was studied under field conditions. In particular, the effect of threedifferent nitrogen dressings using conventional N-fertilizers and Agrotain wasinvestigated on the growth and final yield of (rainfed) durum wheat, and (irrigated)maize and cotton, grown on a fertile clay loamy soil in Velestino (Thessaly plain)area in central Greece in the year 2015. It was demonstrated that all three cropsfertilized Agrotain obtained greater chlorophyll contents and reached significantlyhigher biomass and grain yields comparing to the crops receiving traditionalnitrogen fertilization, obviously due to the more effective nitrogen release anduptake by the crops.Therefore, application of urease inhibitor fertilizers, such asAgrotain, might reduce nitrogen application dressings, reduce N-losses andnitrification, and their introduction to existing crop rotations is highly advisable.