A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College Farm, Mahanandi on sandy loam soils to know the response of maize to higher levels of NPK and Zn nutrition on yield attributes, yield and economics. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with 10 treatments consisting of three higher levels of nutrients and six treatments of higher levels of nutrients in combination of Zinc and each treatment was replicated thrice. Result showed that application of 350-100-100 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1 along with foliar application of 0.2% ZnSO4 at 15 and 25 DAS (T10) gave the highest cob length (19.79 cm), number of grains row-1 (39.70), grain weight cob-1 (216.39 g), test weight (323.00), grain yield (8734 kg ha-1) and stover yield (11275 kg ha-1) which in turn on par with T9 (T3 + Foliar application of 0.2% ZnSO4 at 15 and 25 DAS and significantly superior over control (T1). However, number of cobs plant-1, number of grain rows cob-1 were not significantly influenced by higher levels of NPK and Zn nutrition. Highest gross returns (` 113537.67 ha-1) and net returns (` 74114.67 ha-1) were recorded with application of 350-100-100 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1 along with foliar application of 0.2% ZnSO4 at 15 and 25 DAS (T10). The highest B:C ratio was obtained with application of 250-60-60 kg N-P2O5-K2O ha-1 along with foliar application of 0.2% ZnSO4 at 15 and 25 DAS (T8). thiamethoxam @ 0.2 g/l) has given lower necrosis incidence, followed by the treatment T6. Significant effect of all the treatments over powdery mildew disease incidence was noted in all the treatments except T5. The treatment T4 has given better yield and higher benefit cost ratio of 0.84 than all the treatments, followed by T3 which has given higher benefit cost ratio of and 0.82. Hence, to manage the Alternaria leaf spot and necrosis of sunflower application of either T4 or T2 treatments proved effective.