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Assessment on the minimum tillage practices on maize cultivation suitable for Mid Hill conditions.

S. Bajracharya1 R.C. Prasad1 R.P. Upreti1 and


1

Nepal Agricultural Research Council

Abstract
Maize is one of the major cereal crops in Nepal, especially in mid hills. Considerable priority is given in its at Hill Crops Research Program (HCRP), Kabre, Dolakha. Study was carried out to assess the effect of minimum tillage on the yield of maize crop at HCRP during 2003 and 2004. The study is believed to be the first effort in the country that seeks to find out the response of minimum tillage on crop yield since most of the research on this crop is based on conventional tillage (CT) system Six different treatments including farmers local practices were carefully studied. What was more note worthy was that farmers practice, single seed planted in a small hole made by spade in prepared land, gave comparative higher yield (4.97 tonn) followed by planting in surface and covered by soil (4.67 tonn).No significant variation on the grain yield or on disease perspectives was observed from different minimum tillage treatments. Likewise from maizes major diseases perspective (Tercicum leaf blight, Maydis leaf blight, Sheath blight, Common rust, Leptosphaeria leaf spot and Brown spot), treatments showed homogeneity in the severity. Thus it is necessary to conduct long term study on minimal tillage with broader research parameters and treatments to get a full picture on the long term effect on crop yield, Soil property and monitory benefits. Key Words: maize, minimum tillage, yield and diseases

Introduction
Maize (Zea maize) is the second most staple food crop after rice in Nepal and is primarily used for human food. Maize is currently grown on ha. of land with an average yield of tons/ha. Out of its total area under cultivation, 70 % is in mid-hills.

Nepal Agricultural Research Council and CIMMYT partnership since more than thirty years have helped in improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of this crop for poor farmers in the country. Agricultural Research Station Kabre (Hill Crop Research Program) is one of the research station under NARC is the collaborating station for the implementation of maize research. The major research findings of the experiment minimum tillage practices on maize conducted on farm at Kabre during maize growing seasons 2003 and 2004 are summarized in this paper.

Methods and Methodologies


Abiotic factors The experiment is conducted in the Dolakha district at Hill Crop Research Program (1740 masl). The soil texture was loamy sand with pH 5.0, lower level of organic matter (OM) and total nitrogen (N). Phosphorus (P2O5) level and Potash (K2O) were found to be medium and higher respectively.

Experimental details Maize variety Arun-2 was planted in 9 m2 (4 rows of 3m long) plots with three replications by maintaining 75 cm x 25cm spacing. Two seeds per hill were sown and thinning was done out after about 1 month of sowing except in control treatment in which single seed was sown. About 5t/ha FYM was incorporated in the field before planting. The basal dose of chemical fertilizers applied during planting was 60:40:20 kg N: P2O5: K2O per hectare and 60 kg N/ha as a split dose was applied as side dressing when crop was at knee height stage.

Treatment details Six minimum tillage practices were tested including farmer's practices in small terraces as a control treatment. Treatment details are given in table 1.
Table 1: Treatments under minimum tillage study on maize during 2002 and 2004. T1 Dibbling method T2 T
3

In small lines made by small spade. Seed kept on the surface and covered by soil. Seed kept on the surface and covered by mulch. Direct seeding by Jab planter. Farmers practice (single seed planted in a small hole made by spade in prepared land)

T4 T5 T6

T1 seeds and chemical fertilizers were kept in separate holes (nearly 5 cm apart) in two different lines. T2 seeds were sown in a small line and fertilizers were applied in other line (about 5 cm apart) made by small spade. T3 seeds and fertilizers were kept separately on surface and covered with soil from two sides whereas in treatment T4 mulch was used in place of soil. T5 planting by jab planter. T6 (Control treatment) field was previously dug by spade and FYM and basal dose of chemical fertilizers were broadcasted and mixed in soil then single seed per hill was planted on the hole made by spade without maintaining plant geometry. Middle two rows were taken for harvesting for all treatments except control in which plants under 4.5m2 were taken. Disease Scoring Disease assessments were carried out during the maize growing cycle 2004. Major maize diseases like Tercicum leaf blight (TLB), Maydes leaf blight (MLB), Sheath blight (SB), Common blast (CB), Leptosphaeria leaf spot (LLS) and Brown spot (BS) were taken into consideration and disease scoring was done on the range between 1 to 5 where 1 signifies least susceptible and 5 the highest.

Results and Discussions


Mean monthly air temperature, precipitation and relative humidity during 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 maize growing season are presented in table .2.
Table 2: Weather information recorded at HCRP, Kabre during 1999/2000 and 2000/2001. Maximum temp (C) Minimum temp (C) Rainfall (mm) SN Month R.H (%) 1999/00 2000/01 1999/00 2000/01 1999/00 2000/01 1999/00 2000/01 1 January 18 17.0 5 4.5 1.9 1.5 79 85 2 February 22 17.0 9 4.6 0.0 1.9 75 86 3 March 24.5 22.0 10 8.5 3.0 46.7 62 74 4 April 29 25.5 15 13.5 1.4 106.8 72 76 5 May 26 25.5 16 14.5 210.7 250.3 89 89 6 June 25 25.0 18 13.5 228.8 543.7 89 96 7 July 25 25.5 18.5 16.5 610.9 726.6 98 98 8 August 25 24.0 18 16.0 468.2 567.0 97 96 9 September 23 22.5 15 15.5 643.3 281.9 89 89 10 October 24 24.0 10 13.5 168.8 40.7 86 89 11 November 22 20.5 12 9.4 0.0 0.0 80 85 12 December 17 17.5 9.5 5.0 0.0 1.5 85 88 Total Rainfall 2337.0 2568.0

Tillage impacts on Maize grain yield

Farmers conventional method of maize sowing gave comparative higher grain yield (4.97 kg/ha) than tested different minimum tillage practices. Statistical analysis of the results showed no significant difference among these treatments regarding maize yield and other parameters. As compared to farmer's conventional method of maize sowing i.e., single seed planted in a small hole made by spade in prepared land, different tested minimum tillage's operations including use of machineries had no effect on the yield of the crop.
Table 3: Summery of maize tested on different minimum tillage practices during 2003 and 2004. T.N Treatment Grain Height (cm) Harvested Remarks yield (No./plot) (kg/ha) Plant Ear Plant Ear 1. Dibbling method 4.17 170.5 99.8 42 38 IV 2. Planting in small line 4.25 170.8 103.0 41 37 III 3. Planting in surface / covered by soil 4.67 172.7 109.3 44 40 II 4. Planting in surface / mulch covered 3.57 174.7 107.7 42 41 V 5. Planting by Jab planter 4.17 173.5 43 IV 111.7 44 6. Farmer's method 101.3 47 I 4.97 162.2 44 Mean 4.30 170.7 105.5 43 40 F Test NS NS NS NS NS LSD at 0.05 1.368 20.49 16.9 4.761 5.891

Fig.1: Yield performance of Maize under different minimum tillage treatments during 2003 and 2004.
Maiz e yield performance
M i u tl ae r a e t i m i l g tet n n m m s 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 Gra in (Kg/ha ) 5 6 mean GY

Tillage impacts on other yield parameters Among the tested treatments, height of the plant was observed the shortest in farmers conventional practices (162.2 cm) whereas it was measured more than 170.0 cm in all the rest of the practices. Phenotypic appearance of the plants in all the tested practices was satisfactory. Of all the practices, ear height was found maximum (111.7 cm) through planting by jab planter and smallest through farmers conventional method. Number of plant and ear per plot were highest in farmers own conventional method, which was 47 and 44 respectively.

Tillage impacts on Disease infestation 5 being highest and 1 being lowest, susceptibility of TLB were on an average 3 for all the treatments except 2 on maize planting by jab planter. While the appearance of other diseases likes MLB, SB, CR, LLS and BS were homogenous among all the treatments.
Table 4: Disease observation for different treatments and their scoring at HCRP during 2004. T Treatments Disease Score (1-5 Scale) PH MS N TLB MLB SB CR LLS BS 1 Dibbling method 3 1 1 2 1 1 M E 2 Planting in small line 3 1 1 2 1 1 M M 3 Planting in surface / covered by soil 3 1 1 2 1 2 M M 4 in surface /covered by mulch 3 1 1 2 1 1 M M 5 Planting by Jab planter 2 1 1 2 1 1 M M 6 Farmer's method 3 1 1 2 1 1 M M PA G G G G G G

Note; TLB: Turcicum leaf blight, MLB: Maydis leaf blight, SB: Sheath blight, CR: Common rust, LLS: Leptosphaeria leaf spot & BS: Brown spot PH: Plant height; Tall (T), Medium (M), Dwarf (D) MS: Maturity status; Early (E), Medium (M), Late (L) PA: Phenotypic acceptance; Excellent (EX), Good (G), Fair (F), and Poor (P)

Conclusions
Different minimum tillage treatments tested on the maize, showed not much difference from yield parameters and disease perspective. Unlike Rice and Wheat where the minimum tillage technology has definitely increased the crop production, it is highly recommended that such long term research on maize applying broader research parameters and treatments must be conducted to achieve concrete research results that can be verified in the farmers field and if found suitable can be disseminated to the farming families.

Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to Mr. Ram Chandrika Prasad, Hill Crop Research Program coordinator for his technical guidance in the research and the whole research team for their sincere hard work and enthusiasm during the implementation of the program.

References
Anon-2002/2003 Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative, Division of Marketing Management and Statistics. Anon- Annual report 2060/61 of Hill Crops Research Programme HCRP, Kabre, Dolakha, Nepal. Anon- Annual report 2059/60 of Hill Crops Research Programme HCRP, Kabre, Dolakha, Nepal. Agriculture

Upreti R.P, B.N.Adhikari, P.R.Shakya and S.Thapa. (2001) Intercropping study on maize with different legumes under hill conditions. In Sustainable Maize Production Systems for Nepal: Proceedings of a Maize Symposium (Dec. 3-5, 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal).

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