Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences

Year: 2007 | Volume: 10 | Issue: 21 | Page No.: 3905-3909
DOI: 10.3923/pjbs.2007.3905.3909

Evaluation of Maize Yield in an On-Farm Maize-Soybean and Maize-Lablab Crop Rotation Systems in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria

J. A. Okogun, N. Sanginga and R. C. Abaidoo

Abstract: An attempt was made to solving the problem of shortfall of fertilizer to maize production in the Northern Guinea Savanna (NGS) of Nigeria by harnessing the potentials of legume/cereal crop rotation in on-farm trials. The yield of maize that succeeded two soybean varieties and Lablab in a two-cycle of soybean/maize and Lablab/maize crop rotation in NGS Nigeria was assessed in researcher-managed and farmer-managed plots. Though maize that followed the soybean received between 5 kg N ha^-1 from improved soybean variety (TGx 1448-2E) and 17 kg N ha^-1 from farmer soybean variety (Samsoy-2) as N balance, this did not significantly (p = 0.05) affect the maize yields. The soybean shed 90-100% of its leaves at physiological maturity which resulted in about 110 kg N ha^-1 N uptake. This source of N might be one of the factors responsible for the increase in maize yield that followed soybean (20 to 24%) compared with continuous maize yield plot. Maize yield in previous Lablab plot was significantly (p = 0.05) higher than in all other treatments. Maize yield in farmer-managed plot ranged between 0.13 and 4.53 t ha^-1, maize yield in researcher-managed plot was over 200% higher than maize yield in farmer-managed plot because of poor crop management on the part of the farmer.

Keywords: Biological nitrogen fixation, fertilizer, maize, Northern Guinea savanna, rotation and soybean

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