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Water and Nitrogen Productivity of Maize under Semiarid Environments
Author(s) -
Hammad Hafiz Mohkum,
Ahmad Ashfaq,
Abbas Farhat,
Farhad Wajid,
Cordoba Bernardo Chaves,
Hoogenboom Gerrit
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci2013.05.0291
Subject(s) - irrigation , agronomy , dry matter , water use efficiency , yield (engineering) , fertilizer , productivity , water use , environmental science , crop , nitrogen , agriculture , biology , grain yield , ecology , materials science , physics , macroeconomics , quantum mechanics , economics , metallurgy
Irrigated agriculture is a facing shortage of water and N in semiarid environments where these inputs are limiting factors for crop production. Experiments were conducted to optimize the water and N requirements for maize ( Zea mays L.) under semiarid environmental conditions. Crop physiological and agronomics characteristics were evaluated for three irrigation regimes and five N fertilizer levels during 2009 and 2010. The experiments were conducted in a split‐plot design by triplicating water regimes in the main plots and N levels in the subplots. Total dry matter production and crop growth rate increased with an increase in the N application rate up to 300 kg ha −1 for all irrigation regimes. In contrast, maximum grain yield was achieved with application of 250 kg N ha −1 . Polynomial analysis (third order) showed that 275 kg N ha −1 was optimum for grain yield at normal irrigation. Higher amounts of irrigation and N significantly increased water use efficiency (WUE). Since optimal N rates for maximum grain yield was 250 kg ha −1 with 525 mm irrigation water ha −1 during both growing seasons, this may be considered in formulating good agricultural practices for the soil and weather conditions resembling those of this study.