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Sudan Journal of Agricultural Research

Effects of nitrogen source on yield and nitrogen use efficiency of two maize (Zea mays L.) varieties

Mohamed A. Salih , Eltahir S. Ali, El fadil A. Babiker and Naiem A. Ali

Abstract:

The productivity, N uptake, N recovery and N use efficiency of two maize varieties (Zea mays L.) in response to five sources of nitrogen were investigated in a 3 year field experiment (2004, 2005 and 2006) conducted at the Gezira Research Station Farm. The experimental design was a split plot in which two varieties, an open pollinated (Mugtama-45) and a hybrid (H-351) were the main plot and 5 nitrogen carriers in addition to a check treatment (0N) were the sub plot. The results showed that irrespective of the N source used, maize grain yield was significantly increased over the control by N application. NPK formulation treatments were significantly superior to other N sources in terms of grain yield, N uptake, N recovery and N use efficiency. Like wise, urea gave significantly higher grain yield compared to ammonium fertilizers. The percent increase in maize grain yield due to NPK 18:18:5, NPK 23:23 and urea over the control (0N) were 164, 147 and 131 respectively. The corresponding % increase values in N uptake were 180, 170 and 155 in the above treatments respectively. The hybrid out yielded the open pollinated variety by 29 %.
 

Sudan Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 12  (2008) PP. 11-22