Performance of tropical maize hybrids under conditions of lowand optimum levels of nitrogen fertilizer application – grain yield,biomass production and nitrogen accumulation

摘要

Nitrogen (N) is the most limiting mineral nutrient in the soils of the major maize producing areas of West and CentralAfrica. Low soil N and sub-optimal application of N fertilizers lead to N deficiency and poor grain yield (GY)in maize. Maize varieties with improved grain yield under low soil N and increased performance under optimal Navailability could be beneficial to low input agriculture. This study evaluated the performance of a selection of experimentaland commercial hybrids under suboptimal and optimal N fertilizer applications. Significant differenceswere observed among the hybrids, as well as significant interactions between hybrid and N level for GY and othermeasured attributes, with the severity of variation increasing as the level of N decreases. Mean GY reductionsacross the years was 76.5% at no-N and 35.4% at low-N. Depending on N treatment, GY varied from 0.48 to 4.42Mg ha-1, grain N content from 0.17 to 1.26 g plant-1, total N content at harvest from 0.33 to 2.00 g plant-1, aboveground biomass at silking from 30.6 to 91.2 g plant-1 and at maturity from 39.9 to 191.1 g plant-1. Number of kernelswas the GY component most severely reduced by N stress and had significant (p ≤ 0.001) positive correlationwith GY at all N levels. Six hybrids (4001/4008, KU1409/4008, KU1409/9613, 4008/1808, 4058/Fun 47-4, and1824/9432) which showed consistent above average grain yields under no-N, low-N, high-N and across N levelswere found and their use could further be investigated.