Constraints of maize production on dryland

Recommended technology for improving maize productivity consists of improved variety, NPK fertilizers, pests, diseases and weed management. Only a small part of these components could be adopted by the farmers due to their resources-poorness. Trials were conducted at Muneng Research Station of Marif to identify the agronomic constraints and to test the effect of technology on maize productivity planted on dryland. Research design was split-plot with three replications. The mainplot was maize varieties namely (1) "Hybrid C-1", (2) "Arjuna" and (3) Burdek. Crops management consists of (1) complete treatments, i.e. 300 kg Urea + 200 kg TSP + 100 kg KCl/ha, with pest, disease and weed controls, (2) complete treatments minus N fertilizer, (3) complete treatments minus P fertilizer (4) complete treatments minus K fertilizer, (5) complete treatments minus pest control, (6) complete treatments minus disease control, (7) complete treatments minus weed control. The result showed that grain yield of Hybrid C-1, Arjuna and Burdek were 5.17, 4.57 and 2.89 t/ha with maturity of 95, 87 and 76 days respectively. Hybrid C-1 and Arjuna were similar in yield and both of them were significantly higher than Burdek. The most important agronomic constraint for high maize productivity on dryland was nitrogen fertilizer, while the second was weed competition. Without application of N fertilizer yield decreased until 81 percent for Hybrid C-1, 77 percent for Arjuna and 64 percent for Burdek compared to complete treatments yield. Without weeding, the grain yield decreased until 53 percent, 40 percent and 39 percent for Hybrid C-1, Arjuna and Burdek compared to complete treatments, respectively. There was neither significant effect of P and K fertilizer application, nor pest and disease control application