Low soil fertility and high weed infestation are the main culprits for the declining maize production inWestern Kenya. Technology packages to address these constraints exist, but their effectiveness is likely to be influenced by variability in soil types and farm management practices in the region. Trials were conducted during the 2008/2009 cropping seasons to investigate the nutrient use e...

Biofuels such as bioethanol are becoming a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Utilizing agricultural biomass for the production of biofuel has drawn much interest in many science and engineering disciplines. As one of the major crops, maize offers promise in this regard. Compared to other crops with biofuel potential, maize can provide both starch (seed) and cellulosic (stover) material for bi...

Background: Aflatoxins are toxic fungal metabolites enable to contaminate a wide range of natural substrates. This contamination can be host-specific for different plant species. In this study, the ability of a toxigenic Aspergillus parasiticus to produce various aflatoxins on major Iranian cereals was evaluated with special focus on plant susceptibility to toxin production at cultivar level. M...

Based on the maize ecophysiological characteristics, the maize developping process-based cooperative models including growth model, developmental phase models, water balance model and nitrogen balance model etc. was built combined with the basic data such as variety characteristics, weather data, soil level and cultivation management with the technology support of system engineering method, cro...

Maize (Zea mays), also called corn, is believed to have originated in central Mexico 7000 years ago from a wild grass, and Native Americans transformed maize into a better source of food. Maize contains approximately 72% starch, 10% protein, and 4% fat, supplying an energy density of 365 Kcal/100 g and is grown throughout the world, with the United States, China, and Brazil being the top three ...

Production of doubled haploids (DHs) is an important methodology to speed the process of breeding and development of mapping populations in crops. The procedure for DH production includes two major steps: haploid induction and chromosome doubling. In recent years, wide hybridization between wheat and maize has become a main approach for haploid production in wheat. In this method, the maize chr...

The study was aimed at analysing the technical efficiency in maize production of smallholder farmers in central rift valley of Ethiopia. Cross sectional data from 138 maize producer farmers were collected during 2011/12 production season. The estimated results of the Cobb-Douglas frontier model with inefficiency variables shows that the mean technical efficiency of the farmers in the production...

Aflatoxins are highly carcinogenic mycotoxins frequently produced by Aspergillus flavus. Contamination of maize with aflatoxins imposes both economic and health burdens in many regions. Identification of the most important etiologic agents of contamination is complicated by mixed infections and varying aflatoxin-producing potential of fungal species and individuals. In order to know the potenti...

The study analyzed factors that influence farmer’s participation in hybrid maize seed production in the study area. A Logit analysis was used to analyze factors influencing farmer’s participation in hybrid maize seed production while T-test was used to analyze if there is difference in the mean yields of farmers growing hybrid seeds and those involved in local maize production. Structured quest...

This research aimed at investigating the effect of different levels of nitrogen and planting patterns on dry matter production and growth physiological indices in intercropping maize and sunflower. To do this a split plot experiment carried out based randomized complete block design with three replications in research field of Shushtar Islamic Azad University. The main plot included three level...