Effect of Conservation Agriculture on Growth and Productivity of Maize (Zea mays L.) in Terai Region of Nepal

Santa Bahadur BK^1, and Jiban Shrestha¹

¹Nepal Agricultural Research Council, National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal

Cite this paper

Santa Bahadur BK and Jiban Shrestha. Effect of Conservation Agriculture on Growth and Productivity of Maize (Zea mays L.) in Terai Region of Nepal. World Journal of Agricultural Research. 2014; 2(4):168-175. doi: 10.12691/WJAR-2-4-6

Abstract

In order to evaluate the performance of hybrid and open pollinated varieties of maize under various conservation agriculture based practices in terai, region of Nepal, a field experiment was conducted at the research farm of National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal from February, 2012 to June, 2012. Altogether 16 treatments consisting of four maize varieties namely; DMH-849, Rajkumar, Manakamana-3 and Rampur Composite, and two levels of tillage, (i.e., conventional and no tillage) and two levels of residues management (i.e. with or without residue) were tested in 3 replication under split-split plot design. The data was analyzed using MSTATC statistical package. The results revealed that higher number of ears/ha was found in Manakamana-3 (54013) followed by Rajkumar hybrid (53550). The number of grains per ear was higher for residue left plot (406.04). Rajkumar hybrid produced the highest grain and stover yields of 7182 and 9996 kg/ha followed by 6295.0 and 9825.62 kg/ha in Manakamana-3. Variation on leaf area index (LAI) was due to no tillage was found significant in 45 DAS. Where as, the effect of residues on LAI was found significant at 30, 45, 60 and 75 DAS. Genotypic effect on LAI was found significant only at 30 DAS, where Manakamana-3 had the highest LAI (0.066) followed by DMH849 (0.056) and Rampur Composite (0.055). The variation due to tillage, residue and variety was evident for plant height in all the time series. The effect of residue on dry matter at 45 DAS was highly significant, where higher amount of dry matter was recorded in residue removed plots than the residue left plots. However, the hybrids DMH-849 had more grain to stover ratio (0.75) followed by Rajkumar (0.74) as compare to Rampur Composite (0.69). The plot having residues took longer duration for silking compared to the plot having no residue. Among the genotypes, DMH-849 showed earlier in tasseling (76 days) and maturity (118 days) followed by Rampur Composite. Economic analysis depicted the highest net return in Rajkumar hybrid (Rs. 105617/ha) under no tilled with residue used condition followed by without residue condition (Rs. 92267/ha). Manakamana-3 produced the higher net return (Rs. 85349/ha) under no tillage with no residue used condition followed by conventional tillage with no residue (Rs.70766/ha). The high benefit cost ratio was found of 2.432 in plots having no tillage with residue followed by no tilled with no residue 2.382. Manakamana-3 had the highest benefit cost ratio of 2.351 in no residue plots followed by no tilled with no residue plots (2.072). Significant reduction of production cost due to conservation agriculture (CA) based practices over conventional agriculture was recorded. Therefore, the CA based crop management practices need to be further promoted in wider areas.

Keywords

maize hybrids, open pollinated varieties, conservation agriculture

Copyright

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