Optimizing agricultural water efficiency and nutrient delivery is critical for sustaining cereal crop productivity under escalating climate variability and water scarcity. This field-based empirical investigation evaluates the synergistic effects of precision surface and subsurface drip fertigation regimes on physiological growth, grain yield, and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in Zea mays L. over consecutive cropping seasons. The experimental design employed a randomized complete block layout with four distinct water depletion thresholds (40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% crop evapotranspiration) combined with targeted nitrogen splitting strategies. Agronomic results demonstrate that maintaining soil moisture at eighty percent evapotranspiration with four split nitrogen applications significantly increased grain yield by twenty-three percent (9.84 t/ha, p < 0.01) while decreasing total irrigation volume by thirty-one percent compared to conventional flood irrigation practices. Furthermore, leaf chlorophyll fluorescence and canopy temperature measurements confirmed improved physiological drought tolerance and reduced transpiration stress under optimized drip regimes. The study provides scalable agro-technical blueprints for cereal farmers and agricultural extension services in arid and semi-arid agro-ecological zones striving to maximize resource efficiency while minimizing environmental nutrient leaching.