1Assistant Professor, Soil Conservation and Water Management, C.S., Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh-208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India
2Associate Professor, Soil Conservation and Water Management, C.S., Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh-208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India
3Assistant Professor, Soil Conservation and Water Management, C.S., Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh-208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India, Email: ud_awasthi@rediffmail.com
4Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy, C.S., Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh-208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India, Email: aktripathiak@gmail.com
5Associate Professor, Soil Conservation and Water Management, C.S., Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh-208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Email of corresponding author: rp.singhcsa@gmail.com
Online published on 2 February, 2016.
A field experiment was conducted during two kharif seasons of 2011 and 2012 on sandy loam soil to study the performance of moisture conservation practices and row spacing on growth, yield attributes, yield, water use (WU), water use efficiency (WUE) and economics of maize varieties under rainfed condition. Results revealed that variety ‘Azad Uttam ’proved to be the most promising in yield, WUE and net return as compared to ‘Azad Kamal'. Higher crop canopy, yield, WUE and net return were obtained when maize crop was sown at 45 cm row spacing. Ridging and furrowing in between the crop rows at 20 days after sowing brought about significant improvement in growth, yield attributes, yield, WUE and net return over one weeding and hoeing by khurpi and pre-emergence application of atrazine @ 1 kg a.i. ha−1. As regards energy output, the highest values were noted when maize variety ‘Azad Kamal ’was planted at 45 cm apart following ridging and furrowing as moisture conservation practice. These treatments recorded minimum values of energy intensiveness.
Canopy development, Consumptive use, Economics, Maize, Root development, Splash loss, Water use efficiency, Zea mays
