MAIZE GROWTH, YIELD FORMATION AND WATER-NITROGEN USAGE IN RESPONSE TO VARIED IRRIGATION AND NITROGEN SUPPLY UNDER SEMI-ARID CLIMATE

Year 2016, , 88 - 96, 01.06.2016

Umair Ashraf Mazhar Noor Salım Alam Sher Sabeeh-ur-rasool Sabır Aqil Khan Shenggang Pan Xiangru Tang

https://doi.org/10.17557/tjfc.93898

Cited By: 29

Abstract

Enhancement of resource use efficiencies and crop productivity in sustainable agriculture are important
especially in low-input production systems. This experiment was planned to evaluate the performance of maize
under different water and nitrogen levels. Three irrigation treatments i.e., I1= three leaf stage (V1), nine leaf
stage (V2), tasseling (T) and milking stage (M); I2 = V1, V2, T, M and dough stage (R1), I3= V1, V2,
T, M , R1 and blister stage (R2) were applied with 70 mm application depth with different nitrogen application
rates i.e., 0 , 150, 200 and 250 kg N ha-1
. Results revealed that maximum growth i.e., plant height, leaf area
index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), cob length and diameter as well as yield and yield components i.e.,
grains rows/cob, grains/row, grains/cob, grain weight/cob, 100-grain weight, grain yield, biological yield and
harvest index, water and nitrogen use efficiencies as well as transpiration and photosynthetic activities were
recorded at I3 with 250 kg N ha-1
. However, increased irrigation and nitrogen application rates delayed days to
tasseling, silking and maturity. Conclusively, six irrigations (I3) with 250 kg N ha-1 can be adopted as the best
input levels to get maximum maize yield under semi-arid regions. In future both these inputs may be used as
water and nitrogen based agricultural best management practices (BMPs) in regions with similar type of
environmental conditions. 

Keywords

Growth, Maize, Resource use efficiency, Photosynthesis, Respiration, Yield

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