RESPONSE OF YIELD CONTRIBUTING CHARACTERS OF MAIZE TO IRRIGATION AND NITROGENOUS FERTILISER

A field experiment was carried out to study the response of maize to various irrigation regimes and nitrogenous fertilisers. Texturally, the experimental soil was silt loam having 36.78% sand, 50.93% silt and 12.18% clay, respectively. The experiment included 2 factors namely: (i) 5 irrigation regimes with IW/CPE (irrigation water applied divided by cumulative pan evaporation) ratio of 1.0 and was applied at one time at 37, 58, 75 and 90 days after sowing (DAS) in I-1,I-2, I-3, and I-4 experimental plots, respectively, and (ii) 4 nitrogen doses, viz. 00, 70, 100 and 120 kg N/ha. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with 3 replications assigning 5 irrigation treatments to the main plots and 4 nitrogen levels to sub-plots at random. Yield and yield contributing characters were significantly affected by the application of irrigation and nitrogenous fertilisers. The highest grain yield of 6.88 t/ha was obtained with 90 DAS irrigation treatment and 7.61 t/ha by the application of 100 kg N/ha were found to be the best combinations for the grain yield of maize. The nutritional status like N, P, K and organic carbon slightly decreased at harvest compared with land preparation. This might be due to the uptake of plant nutrients during the entire growth period of maize crop.