TITLE:
Response of Fodder Maize to Various Levels of Nitrogen and Phosphorus
AUTHORS:
Aziz Khan, Fazal Munsif, Kashif Akhtar, Muhammad Zahir Afridi, Zahoor, Zahoor Ahmad, Shah Fahad, Rizwan Ullah, Faheem Ahmed Khan, Mairaj Din
KEYWORDS:
Fodder Maize, Nitrogen, Phosphorus
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.15,
July
9,
2014
ABSTRACT: Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are of the most important and complex
nutrients for the crop plants in particular for grain yield and quality. The
field trials were laid out in randomized complete block design having three
replications. Research trial plots were located at Agricultural Research Farm of
Agricultural University Peshawar (Ameer Mohammad Khan Campus Mardan) during
kharif season in 2012 to investigate the response of maize variety (Jalal) to
three phosphorus rates (60, 90 and 120 kg·ha-1) and four nitrogen
rates (90, 120, 150, 180 kg·ha-1) for agronomical traits. These
traits investigated included number of plant per m2 (NP m2),
plant height (PH), number of leaves plant-1 (NLP), leaf area plant-1·cm2 (LAP), fresh weight of plants kg·ha-1 (FW) and dry weight of plant kg·ha-1 (DW), were investigated. Results of the study showed that application of N @
180 and P @ 120 kg·ha-1 significantly increased fodder yield of
maize. The linear increase in biomass yield clearly indicated that N was a
limiting nutrient factor and that N demand along with P has a positive
response. At higher application rates, N fertilizer significantly increased
biomass component, improved N uptake with increasing nitrogen use efficiency
and decreased its losses to the environment and below plant zone. So this study
showed that the phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers have a positive effect on
the fodder yield of maize.