Research paper
Effect of Different Nitrogen Levels on Some Quality Characters of Three Maize (Zea mays L.) Cultivars Under Northern State Conditions
Galal EL Toum A.1, Dagash Y. M.2 and Musaad K. B.1
- Department of Agronomy, faculty of Agric. Sciences, University of Dongola, Sudan
- Department of Agronomy, College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology
Corresponding Author: عنوان البريد الإلكتروني هذا محمي من روبوتات السبام. يجب عليك تفعيل الجافاسكربت لرؤيته.
ABSTRACT
Galal EL Toum A. et al. / Nile Journal for Agricultural Sciences Vol. 3, NO. 1 (2018) 60 - 68
تأثير السماد النيتروجيني علي بعض صفات الجودة لثالثة أصناف من الذرة الشامية تحت ظروف الوالية الشمالية
جالل التوم أحمد1، يسن محمد إبراهيم دقش2، كمال الدين بشير ابراهيم1
1 قسم إنتاج المحاصيل، كلية العلوم الزراعية، جامعة دنقال، السودان. 2 كلية الدراسات الزراعية، جامعة السودان للعلوم والتكنولوجيا، السودان
هدفت هذه الدراسة إلي مقارنة استخدام مستويات مختلفة من السماد النيتروجيني علي بعض صفات الجودة لثالثة أصناف من الذرة الشامية هي: البلدى، حديبة1- وحديبة.2- تم استخدام تصميم القطع المنشقة بتصميم القطاعات العشوائية الكاملة بأربعة مكررات وذلك لمقارنة بعض صفات الجودة لثالثة أصناف من الذرة الشامية (البلدي وحديبة 1- وحديبة)2- في أربعة مستويات من السماد النيتروجيني 0(، 43، 86 و129 كجم/هكتار.) أجريت التجربة خالل المواسم الصيفية 2014/13 و 2015/14
أوضحت النتائج أن زيادة الجرعة من السماد
السودان.
كلية العلوم الزراعية- جامعة دنقال-
المتتالية بالمزرعة التجريبية-
النيتروجيني كان لها تأثير معنوي علي محتوي البروتين ومحتوي األلياف في كال الموسمين. حيث أعطي إضافة 129 كجم نتروجين زيادة في محتوي البروتين %1 و 6 % مقارنة بالشاهد بينما كانت الزيادة في محتوي األلياف %1 و %13 في كال
الموسمين. ايضا كان هنالك اختالف معنوي بين أصناف الذرة الشامية في محتوي البروتين ومحتوي األلياف في كال الموسمين.
التداخل بين السماد النيتروجيني وأصناف الذرة الشامية كان معنويا خالل الموسم األول.
Effect of Different Nitrogen Levels on Some Quality Characters of Three Maize Cultivars
Introduction
Maize also known as Corn (Zea mays L.) is a grain crop that belongs to the family Poaceae. The origin of this grain remains unknown, however, many historians believe that maize was first domesticated in Mexico's Tehuacan valley, then introduced to Africa by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and has become Africa's most important staple food crop (FAO, 2005). Maize is the most important cereal crop in the world after wheat and rice. It has great yield potential and attained the leading position among cereal based on production as well as productivity and that is why it is called "queen of cereals" (Turi et al., 2007). Maize is multipurpose crop, provides food for human, feed for animals and poultry, and fodder for livestock. It is rich source of raw materials for industry. Also, maize is an important source of calories and protein in human lives in many countries of the world and is the main staple food in Africa particularly in eastern Africa (Salami et al., 2007). The top ten maize producers in 2016/2017 (in million metric tons) were United States of America (385), China (219,5), Brazil (91,5), Argentina (37,5), Ukraine (28 ), India (26), Russia
(15,5), South Africa(14,6), Canada (13,2) and Indonesia (10,2) (FAOSTAT, 2017). In Sudan (117 in the world ranking) maize "Aish El reef" is considered a minor crop and is normally grown in Kordofan and Darfur or in small irrigated areas in the Northern States. In Sudan there is strong desire that, in years to come, maize production will be a real revolution in agriculture, therefore any research work on maize production will be of paramount importance (Mukhtar, 2006). In the Northern State of Sudan farmers usually concentrate their efforts on the cultivation of winter crops: wheat and faba bean only, while during summer season few areas are cultivated and a large areas are left without cultivation- these areas can be used in farming maize for the use as grains and or green fodder. Maize is nitro positive and needs ample quantity of nitrogen to attain high yield. Nitrogen deficiency is a key factor for limiting maize yields (Alvarez and Grigera, 2005). Low yield of maize can be attributed to many constraints but nitrogen fertilizer application is one of the major factors (Witt et al., 2008). It is, therefore, imperative to use an optimum amount of nitrogen through a suitable and efficient source. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of using different nitrogen levels on some quality characters namely crude protein and crude fibre content of three maize cultivars grown under Northern state conditions.
Materials and Methods Experimental site
Three open pollinated cultivars of maize namely; Local variety (Balady), Hudeiba-1 and Hudeiba- 2 (open-pollinated varieties improved by Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) were grown under four nitrogenous fertilizer levels (0, 43, 86 and 129 kg/ha) at Demonstration Farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Dongola- El Seleim Northern state of the Sudan for two consecutive summer seasons (2013/14 and 2014/15). The Northern State occupies the distant northern part of the Sudan and is within the desert region of the Sudan which has extremely high
Galal EL Toum A. et al. / Nile Journal for Agricultural Sciences Vol. 3, NO. 1 (2018) 60 - 68
temperature and radiation in summer and low temperature in winter. In general in Dongola rainfall is scarce and wind prevails from the north.
Experimental design and treatment
A Split plot arrangement in randomized complete block design with four replications was used to execute the experiment, where the three cultivars (V1, V2 and V3) assigned to the main plots and the four nitrogen levels to the sub plots. Nitrogen levels used for the treatment were notified as N0, N1, N2 and N3, respectively.
Plant materials and characters
Each Cultivar (Hudeiba-1 =V1, Hudeiba-2= V3 and the local variety=V2) was grown in four ridges 3meters long in both seasons at a seed rate of 37.5kg/ha with spacing 20 and 70 cm for intra and inter row spacing, respectively. Three to four seeds were sown per hole and then thinned to one plant per whole three weeks after sowing in both seasons. The irrigation was applied at an interval of 10 to 12 days. In each season hand weeding was carried out once. Seeds crude protein and crude fibre contents were determined following the standard methods of the Association of Official American Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 1990). The organic nitrogen content was determined using the micro-Kjeldahl method, and an estimate of the crude protein content was estimated by multiplying the organic nitrogen content by a factor of 6.25% (Sosulski and Imafidon, 1990). Two different samples were analyzed in triplicate. The data in each season were subjected to standard procedure of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and then means were separated using Least Significant Difference (LSD) test according to Gomez and Gomez (1984) using MSTATC software.
Results and Discussion
Effect of nitrogen levels on quality characters
Nitrogen caused highly significant differences (Table 1) in crude protein and crude fibre content in both seasons. The data which is presented in table-2 showed that application of 129 kg N-ha gave 1 and 6% significantly greater crude protein content over control, whereas the increase in crude fiber content was 1 and 13% in both seasons. The increase in crude protein due to nitrogen can be attributed to the fact that nitrogen often plays a great role in the synthesis of protein. Similar results were obtained by Ayub et al. (2003), Almodares et al. (2009), Nadeem et al. (2009) and Reddy and Bhanumurty (2010) who all found the same results. Additionally, nitrogen significantly affected crude fibre content in both seasons. Considering crude fibre, similar result was reported by Ayub et al. (2003) who indicated that higher nitrogen application significantly increased crude fibre.
Effect of Different Nitrogen Levels on Some Quality Characters of Three Maize Cultivars
Table 1: F-values for crude protein and crude fibre contents of three maize cultivars during the summer season 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Nitrogen levels
Maize cultivars
Nitrogen and maize
Characters
cultivars interaction
Crude protein (%) Crude fibre (%)
1st season
27.03**
34.67**
2nd season
42.78**
46.53**
1st season
15.56*
9.11*
2nd season
7.45*
3.14 *
1st season
5.90*
3.14 *
2nd season
0.63 n.s
1.63 n.s
*significant at 5% level, ** significant at 1% level, ns: non- significant at 5% level
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Table 2: Effect of nitrogen levels on some quality of three maize cultivars during the summer seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Treatment Crude protein (%) Crude fibre (%)
Means within column followed by the same letter (s) were not significantly different according to LSD test at 5% level.
Performance of cultivars in quality characters
Table-3 shows that cultivars differ significantly in crude protein and crude fibre content in both seasons. This result was in line with that reported by Ayub et al. (2003), Altin and Hunter (1984) they found significant differences in crude protein and crude fibre content between maize cultivars. In contrast, Ayub et al. (2001) reported that maize cultivars did not differ significantly in crude protein and crude fibre content. This could probably be attributed to narrow genetic base of the material used in this experiment. The interaction of nitrogen levels and maize cultivars which is presented in Table (4) showed significant differences in crude protein and crude fibre content in the first season. This reflected differential response of maize cultivars to nitrogen fertilization.
Galal EL Toum A. et al. / Nile Journal for Agricultural Sciences Vol. 3, NO. 1 (2018) 60 - 68
Table 3: Performance of maize cultivars in some quality characters of during the summer seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
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Treatment Crude protein (%) Crude fibre (%)
Means within column followed by the same letter (s) were not significant different according LSD test at 5%level.
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Table 4: Interaction between nitrogen levels and cultivars on some quality characters of maize during the summer seasons 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Treatment Crude protein (%) Crude fibre (%)
Means within column followed by the same letter(s) were not significant different according to LSD test at 5% level.
Effect of Different Nitrogen Levels on Some Quality Characters of Three Maize Cultivars
Conclusion
The result of this study indicated that increase in nitrogen levels led to increase in crude protein and crude fibre content of maize cultivars. Improved cultivar Hudeiba-2 performed better in crude protein and crude fibre content in both seasons. Since there are major winter crops which can be grown in the area (wheat, faba bean, funnel….etc) that compete with maize, the suggestion of growing the maize crop as a summer crop will help in intensification and diversification of the rotations of the agricultural schemes in the area.
References
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Altin, G. W. and Hunter, R. B. (1994). Comparison of growth, forage yield and nutritional quality of diploid and autotetraploid maize synthesis. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 64 (3): 593– 598.
Alvarez, R. and Grigera, S. (2005). Analysis of soil fertility and management effects on yields of wheat and corn in the rolling pampa of Argentina. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 191: 321‒329.
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Effect of Different Nitrogen Levels on Some Quality Characters of Three Maize Cultivars
