INFLUENCE OF TILLAGE PRACTICES AND POULTRY MANURE ON GRAIN PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND YIELD ATTRIBUTES OF SPRING MAIZE (Zea mays L.)

Grains are the economical part of maize that demand proper management practices to achieve the crop potential. This study explored the influence of different tillage practices and poultry manure levels on the grain length, breadth, area, grains weight per cob and grain yield per m(2)of spring planted maize. The experiment was set up using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement having four tillage practices as main plot treatments; zero tillage, minimum tillage, conventional tillage and deep tillage. Sub plot treatments were three poultry manure levels; control (no poultry manure), poultry manure @ 5 Mg ha(-1) and poultry manure @ 10 Mg ha(-1). Data indicated that the deep tillage practice significantly improved (p>0.05) the length, breath and area of maize grains over the other tillage practices in both years of study. Significantly higher grain yield was produced in deep tillage practice as compared to conventional, minimum and zero tillage practices. Increasing order of poultry manure dose treatments produced the bold and healthy seeds over the control treatment. A positive correlation between grain yield per m(2) vs physical properties of maize grain and grains weight per cob was recorded. The study concludes that the productive effect of integrated use of poultry manure and chemical fertilizers application on the maize grain yield.