effects of integrated application of biofertiliser and chemical fertilizer on growth of maize (zea mays l.) in shushtar

biofertilizers are natural inputs that can be applied as complement or substituent of chemical fertilizers in sustainable agriculture. effects of n and p bio- and chemical fertilizers on growth indices of maize (zea mays l.) was studied on 2008 in shushtar, iran, based an as a factorial experiment based on completely randomized block design with three replications. treatments consisted four levels of biological and chemical fertilizers, a1 (100% chemical fertilizer), a2 (50% chemical+biological fertilizer), a3 (25% chemical+biological fertilizer), and a4 (biological fertilizer). results showed that integrated application of biological and chemical fertilizers increased stem length,leaf area index (lai), dry mater (dm) accumulation, crop growth rate (cgr), relative growth rate (rgr), leaf area duration index (laid) and leaf area ratio (lar) in relation to chemical fertilizers, the highest and the lowest plant height was observed at 115 day after planting in a2 (186cm) and a1 (178cm), respectively. the minimum and the maximum lai was observed at 71 day after planting in a3 (4.71) and a4 (2.3) treatments, respectively. similar trend was observed in dm accumulation (20.37 and 12.48 t.ha-1, respectively) and net assimilation rate at 94 day after planting (19.4 and 11.3 g.m-2) and crop growth rate at 71 day after planting (44.8 and 26.5 g.m-2, respectively).