Oikeh, S.O. and Chude, V.O. and Kling, G.J. and Horst, W.J. (2007) Comparative productivity of nitrogen-use efficient and nitrogen-inefficient maize cultivars and traditional grain sorghum in the moist Savanna of West Africa. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 2 (3). pp. 112-118.
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Abstract
Strategies to cope with low fertilizer use in West Africa include choice of crop (that is., sorghum vs. maize) and the development of nitrogen-use efficient maize (Zea mays L.) varieties. A two-year field study was undertaken to compare the N response of an N-use efficient maize (hybrid, cv. 8644-27) and a nitrogen-inefficient maize (cv. TZB-SR), and to compare the productivity of the two cultivars with a traditional grain-sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) in the moist savanna agroecosystem in Zaria, Nigeria. The two maize cultivars were evaluated under three N levels (0, 60, and 120 kg ha-1). Sorghum (cv. ‘mori’) was evaluated under 0 and 120 kg N ha-1. Mean grain yield was 0.5 Mg ha-1 greater for N-use efficient than for N-inefficient maize, mostly because of its larger harvest indices for dry biomass and for N, and a greater N-utilization efficiency. In both years, with 120 kg N ha-1 applied, grain yield and grain-N were 54 to 275% higher in maize than in grain sorghum. Under nitrogen stress (zero-N), grain yield of the N-efficient maize was similar to that of grain sorghum. But sorghum had 2 to 3 times greater total aboveground dry-matter yield and 165 to 230% higher total N-uptake than the maize cultivars, suggesting that sorghum was exhausting the soil of a greater amount of mineral-N than maize. Results showed that even under limiting nitrogen supply, a maize-based system with N-efficient maize was potentially more ecologically sustainable than a sorghum-based system involving traditional grain sorghum.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Author Affiliation: | National Special Program on Food Security, Abuja, Nigeria |
| Subjects: | Plant Production Plant Protection > Pesticides Plant Protection > Pests |
| Divisions: | Sorghum |
| Depositing User: | Mr B Krishnamurthy |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2010 17:52 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Dec 2010 19:42 |
| Official URL: | http://www.academicjournals.org/ajar/PDF/Pdf2007/M... |
| URI: | http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/1059 |
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