Maize Essay

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INTRODUCTION
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most versatile crops and can be grown in diverse environmental conditions and has diversified uses as human food and animal feed. The productivity of any crop is the ultimate result of its growth and development. Plant population, inorganic and organic fertilization are the important prime factors that determine the yield of maize crop. Among the plant nutrients, primary nutrients such as, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium play a crucial role in deciding the growth and yield. The nitrogen use efficiency can be improved with the use of hybrids, soil application of arbuscular mycorrhiza and application of fertilizers coinciding with peak need by the crop.
Phosphorus is known to stimulate early and extensive development of root systems, which enables rapid maize growth and to mature early (Sankaran et al., 2005). Enhancement of P uptake by mycorrhizal hyphae can also be indirectly attributed to the faster uptake rate of P by the hyphae and the disturbance of the solution solid P equilibrium, which will increase the sorption of absorbed phosphate into soil solution (Nye and Tinker, 1977).
Intercropping is one of the most promising …show more content…

Applying higher dose of fertilizers delayed the process of flowering. This shows negative relationship between earliness with yield. Under the fertilizer level of 75 % RDF, because of the insufficiency of source and transformation of reproductive phase, these treatments could not supply sufficient photosynthates for the developing sinks. These observations are in accordance with Gent (1992) and Lohar and Peat (1998), who observed that when plants were subjected to stress like drought, high temperature, competition between plants for resources etc., they readily entered into reproductive phase before putting forth sufficient vegetative

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