Yield of Maize as Affected by Fertiliser Application Practices

A study was conducted at Bunda College during the 2003/04 crop season to assess the effect of fertilizer application practices on performance of maize with emphasis on improving the efficiency of using urea as a top dressing fertilizer The treatments were laid out as a split-plot in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with maize varieties as main plots and fertilizer application practices as subplots. There were three maize varieties and three fertilizer application practices. The maize varieties included local maize, Masika (composite) and DK8031 (hybrid) and the fertilizer application practices were 100 kg ha 23:21:0 +4S +50 kg ha urea as basal and 100 kg ha urea as top dressing (Pi), 100 kg ha -1 23:21:0+4S + 75kg ha' urea as basal and 75 kg ha" urea as top dressing (P?) and 1OOkeha 23:21:0+4S basal and 150 kgha urea as top dressing (P3). There were significant differences in grain yield among the maize varieties (p=0.004) and fertiliser application practices (p<0.001). DK8031 yielded highest (6313kg/ha) followed by Masika (5467kg/ha) and local maize (4323kg/ha). P2 increased maize grain yields by 16-29'% over Pi (5422kg/ha) and P3 (4891 kg/ha) respectively. Similar findings were obtained on the 100 seed weight with P2 having the highest 100 seed weight (39g) as compared to Pi (37g) and P3 (35g). However, fertilizer application practices had no effect on lodging, cob height and plant height of the maize varieties. The results from this study suggest that when using Urea as a top dressing fertiliser, application of half of the dose as part of the basal fertiliser and the remaining half as top dressing fertiliser increase maize grain yield.