Impacts of integrated water and nutrient management on wheat productivity and soil health within the food-energy-water-carbon nexus

Soil degradation, declining resource-use efficiency, and increasing climatic variability threaten sustainable wheat production in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGPs) of India. Although, integrated water and nutrient management has been widely studies, limited evidences exist on their combined, stage-specific optimization and its impact on soil biological health and system productivity under field conditions. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the synergistic effects of irrigation scheduling and integrated nutrient management (INM) on wheat performance, soil health, and resource-use efficiency. A two-year field experiment (2021–23) was conducted on a Typic Ustochrept at Meerut, India, using a split-plot design with three irrigation regimes/scenarios and six nutrient-management strategies. Irrigation at critical growth stages [crown root initiation, late tillering, late jointing, flowering, and milking] significantly enhanced growth and yield attributes, resulting in 14–16% higher grain yield (4.9 t ha⁻¹), 13% more effective tillers, and 23% improvement in soil microbial biomass carbon and dehydrogenase activity compared to IW/CPE-based irrigation. Among nutrient strategies, integrated application of 50% recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) combined with poultry manure (2.5 t ha⁻¹) and NPK consortia outperformed sole inorganic fertilization, increasing grain yield by 6–8%, water-use efficiency by 5% and soil organic carbon by up to 7%. This treatment also markedly improved soil biological activity (SMBC up to 45% and DHA up to 42% higher than 100% RDF), indicating enhanced soil resilience. Economic returns were maximized under the combined approach, with production and monetary efficiencies exceeding conventional practices. The study demonstrates a novel, field-validated framework integrating stage-specific irrigation with biologically enriched nutrient management, offering a scalable strategy to improve productivity, restore soil health, and enhance climate resilience in intensive cereal systems of the IGPs of India.