WATER USE EFFICIENCY OF MAIZE VARIETIES IN ACID SAND SOIL

Introduction: Efficient use of water imposes one of the major limits to rainfed crop production especially in sandy soils. Measurement of water use efficiency (WUE) is, therefore, a useful utility in assessing biomass production vis-à-vis grain yield. Therefore, quantification of evapo-transpiration is possible in soil water balance study in order to improve WUE of crops. This research aims to quantify the volume of soil water utility by maize crop.

Methods: Two local maize varieties (Mkprak and Uweb) along with one improved variety (FARZ-7) were planted under rainfed condition. Experiment was in randomized complete block design, replicated three times. Four micro-lysimeters were randomly installed in each treatment. Periodic weighing of the micro-lysimeters two days after rainfall was done to determine evapotranspiration at different stages of crop growth.

Results: Results showed average WUE 0.27 g mm-1 (±0.01), 0.26 g mm-1 (±0.00), and 0.27 g mm-1 (±0.01) for varieties Mkprak, Uweb and FARZ-7 respectively with non-significant differences for grain production. However, WUE for the shoot biomass was higher for Uweb 0.15 g mm-1 (±0.02) followed by Mkprak 0.14 g mm-1 (±0.01) and the lowest for variety FARZ-7 0.13 g mm-1 (±0.01).

Conclusion: Of all the three varieties, the efficiency of converting soil moisture into grain yield was in the decreasing order of Farz-7, Mkprak and Uweb; implying that the improved variety (Farz-7) is most suitable to the ecology of the area.