Effect of tillage practice on growth and yield of maize

Abstract

The study aimed at evaluating the effect of tillage practice on vegetative growth and yield of maize and was guided by the following objectives; to evaluate the effect of tillage practice on vegetative growth of maize, evaluate the effect of tillage practice on nutrient deficiency symptom expression in maize and evaluate the effect of tillage practice on maize yield.The experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research and Development institute in Ngetta Sub County, Lira District and another one in Njeru Sub county, Buikwe district. Maize varieties Longe 10H and Longe5 were used in this experiment. The experiment was arranged in a 2X2 factorial design with 2 tillage practices (conventional tillage and minimum tillage) as the main factors and 2 maize varieties (Longe 10H and Longe 5) as the levels. The results showed that there was significant difference in plant height, stem girth and leaf width between the two tillage methods. Minimum tillage had the highest plant height (84.05cm) while conventional tillage had 79.99 cm,there was a significant difference in stem girth between the two tillage practices 4.44cm for conventional tillage and 4.2 for minimum tillage. There was no significant difference in leaf width and number of leaves between the two tillage practices. At harvest, there was no significant difference in shelling percentage, grain moisture content, yield and 100 seed weight. However the experiment showed that there was significant difference in yield between the two varieties used (Longe 5 and Longe 10H). The results suggested that tillage method did not significantly affect grain yield of maize. Although there was no significant difference in yield between the two tillage methods used,conventional tillage practice resulted in higher maize grain yield (7.7 mt/ha) compared to minimum tillage (7.1 mt/ha). Despite both tillage practices not being profitable, farmers who adopt minimum tillage as a farming practice will have a lower cost of production and therefore will incur much lower losses.