Integrated crop management (ICM) practices play a critical role in enhancing the maize's physiological growth, optimizing the dry matter and nutrients' acquisition coupled with increased productivity. The effect of these comprehensive long-term ICM practices was investigated on the growth and physiological characteristics, dry matter and nutrient accumulation, partitioning and remobilization, productivity, and sustainability of the maize under the field conditions in semi-arid regions of sub-tropical India. Eight ICM practices were evaluated over nine consecutive years (2014-2023), which included ICM1-4: conventional (CT); ICM5-6: double zero-tilled and ICM7-8: triple zero-tilled ICM practices. ICM5-8 practices improved maize growth attributes over the conventional ICM practices, wherein the increment in the relative growth and the net assimilation rates were 7.9-8.2 %, and 14.1-15.5 %, respectively. Further, these practices improved the photosynthesis rates (9.7-20.5 %), stomatal conductance (11.5-19.1 %), and transpiration efficiency (5.4-14.2 %). In addition, the residue-retained practices showed a greater reduction in canopy temperature (-3.2 to-4 & ring;C) over the CT (-1.6 to- 2.7 & ring;C), along with the enhancements in total chlorophyll (31.1-49.7 %), and carotenoids (26.9-50.3 %) at anthesis stage. Additionally, the ICM5-8 demonstrated the increases of 38.8-60.1 %, 168-219 %, and 45.9-81.3 % in pre-anthesis translocation of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), respectively over the conventional ICM practices. Likewise, the post-anthesis N, P, and K translocation increased by 20.3-29.4 %, 34.7-71.5 %, and 37.9-40.1 %, respectively under the residue-retained double and triple-ZT ICM5-8 practices. On average, the residue-retained ICM7-8 practices led to a similar to 19 % and similar to 12 % increase in the grain and stover yields, respectively over the ICM1-4 practices. In maize, the highest sustainable yield index too was recorded under the ICM5-8 practices, which was similar to 19 % higher than the ICM1-4. The study underscores the potential of adopting residue-retained zero-tilled ICM practices to enhance the maize yields and continuance of sustainability in the long-run.