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Identifying the contributions of climate factors and fertilization to maize yield is significant for the assessment of climate change impacts on maize production under semiarid conditions. This experiment was conducted with an overall objective to find how N fertilization and cultivar interactions along with climatic conditions determine the mineral composition and maize yield responses of four divergent maize cultivars grown under eight different fertilization levels. The results showed that element contents were significantly affected by year (Y), cultivar (C), N fertilization, and N × C interaction. The element contents of grains were mainly influenced by N rate or N × C interactions. The results showed that maize yield was significantly affected by year (Y), genotype (G), N fertilization (N), and Y × G × N interaction. These results implied that the maize yield was significantly affected by changes in genotypes and environments. Overall, our findings are a result of the interactions of genetic, environmental, and agronomic management factors. Future studies could evaluate more extreme plant densities, N fertilizer levels, and environments to further enhance our understanding of management effects on the mineral composition and maize yield in calcareous soil.

The variations in temperature and rainfall patterns under climate change are threatening crop production systems, and optimizing fertilization practices is a prerequisite for sustainable cereal production. This two‐year field study investigated the effects of eight treatments (T1: P60K60; T2: P60K60 + Nmin spring; T3: P60K60 + N40autumn + Nmin spring; T4: P60K60 + N60spring; T5: P60K60 + N100spring; T6: P60K60 + N40autumn + N60spring + Zn; T7: P60K60 + N60autumn + N80spring + Zn; and T8: P60K60 + N160spring + Zn) on the grain yield and quality of four divergent maize cultivars (NS‐4023, NS‐640, NS‐6010 and NS‐6030). The observations on climatic data showed substantial variations in monthly and cumulative rainfall only, which was 174 and 226 mm for 2011 and 2012, respectively, and much less than the historical cumulative rainfall of 339 mm. However, temperature during growth years showed little deviation from the historical data. The data showed that treatment and maize cultivar significantly influenced grain yield; however, grain yield remained lower in 2012 than in 2011 for each treatment and cultivar. Applying N as split doses in combination with Zn, resulted in higher grain yields than adding at once. However, the treatments and cultivars affected grain quality variables differently, including oil, thiol SH, phytate, inorganic P, soluble protein, starch, total phenol, protein, total sugars and tryptophan contents. Despite the pronounced difference in grain yields between 2011 and 2012 for each treatment and cultivar, grain quality did not always vary significantly between cultivars. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the relationships between grain yield and grain quality varied significantly during 2011 and 2012. The changes in rainfall patterns at critical growth maize stages seemed to be a more important factor than temperature in regulating the response of maize cultivars in terms of grain yield and quality to various fertilization regimes in th