Chickpea is a legume of the family Fabaceae and the most widely grown crop in the semi-arid Mediterranean regions. This pulse crop can grow on almost any soil and is well adapted to the semi-arid conditions, but for good growth it requires a fertile soil with good residual moisture. Therefore, nutrient-and water-management practices are necessary agronomic options to improve chickpea production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different conventional and nano-fertilizers on growth and yield of Kabuli chickpea under supplemental irrigation. The experiment was carried out at a research field in dry highland of Maragheh, North western Iran. Plants were grown under rainfed situation during the vegetative growth and supplement irrigations was applied during flowering and seed filling stages. The effect of nine nutrient treatments including T1: control (no fertilizer application), T2: nano-chelated iron, T3: nano-chelated manganese, T4: nano-chelated copper, T5: nano-chelated boron, T6: organic manganese, T7: conventional NPK fertilizer, T8: multi-nutrient nano-fertilizer and T9: nano-chelated zinc were evaluated. Result showed that application of multi-nutrient nano-fertilizer, conventional NPK fertilizer and nano-chelated Zn considerably improved the both vegetative growth (e.g. plant height, canopy width, number of the branches) and yield components. Also the highest chlorophyll concentration (P < 0.05) was recorded for plant grown by application of multi-nutrient / compound fertilizers. There was a significant positive correlation between chlorophyll concentration and seed yield components (P < 0.01). Among the applied micronutrients, plants significantly responded to nano-chelated Zn. Conventional NPK significantly improved the lateral growth (canopy width, ground cover, branches numbers).The results pointed out that the best performance of chickpea could be achievable through utilization of nano-of multi-nutrient fertilizer, with the simultaneous release of micronutrients and macronutrients. The findings provided illustrative information in order to appreciate the importance of balanced crop nutrition in semi-arid Mediterranean region.

The sunflower is the third most important source of edible oil and accounts for about 14% of world production of seed oils. Although the sunflower is well adapted to semi-arid regions, low soil fertility and nutrients deficiencies are important yield-limiting factors for sunflower production. The current experiment was carried out to study the effects of farmyard manure (zero (M 1 ), 20 (M 2 ) t ha) and nanostructured fertilizers (Mn, Fe, Zn ) on the agronomical traits, yield and yield components of the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). The experiment was conducted during 2015-2016 growing seasons at a research field in Maragheh in the north-western part of Iran. Application of farmyard manure significantly improved such agronomic traits as plant height, leaf area, the number of leaves, the internode length, the stem diameter, the diameter of the branch head, the number of branches, the length of branches, achene length and achene width, the main capitulum diameter, 100-achene weight, oil content in an achene compared with non-manure condition. Results revealed that plants grown under M 2 showed earlier flowering and possessed a higher chlorophyll concentration in leaves. Moreover, application of nano-chelated Zn and Fe considerably decreased the proportion of empty achenes and increased oil concentration, the achene yield and the harvest index. However, the best performance was obtained by combined application of nano-chelated Zn under manure conditions. The findings pointed to the importance of micronutrient deficiencies and balanced nutrition in this area. The overall results show that the integrated application of organic manure and nano-chelated micronutrients are more effective in improving the yield of sunflowers in semiarid production systems.

Deficiencies of zinc, manganese and iron are common in calcareous soils of arid and semiarid regions due to their reduced solubility alkaline conditions. However, sustainable crop production is essential for growing population. Sulfur fertilizers can increase micronutrients availability by decreasing soil pH. In order to investigate the influence of nano-chelated essential metals (Zn, Mn, Fe) and sulfur application (zero and 40 kg ha-1) an experiment was carried out in Maragheh, northwest of Iran. Phenological development, morphological and agronomic traits significantly responded to both factors. Results revealed that application of sulfur fertilizer considerably increased morphological traits such as ground cover, stem diameter, plant height and capitulum diameter. Mean comparison between nano-chelated metal showed that the highest value for seed yield and yield components (number of the capitulum per plants, seed number per capitulum and seed weight) was achieved through the application of nano-chelated Zn. The best performance was related to combined application of sulfur and nano-chelated Zn which was followed by nano-chelated Fe. Seed oil content was only affected by nano-metals, so the highest value was obtained by application of nano-chelated Zn. Overall our finding revealed that integrated application of sulfur and essential metals, especially Zn, is required to grow safflower successfully on calcareous soils. The efficiency of nano-chelated fertilizers can be noticeably increased by balanced nutrient management in semi-arid regions.