Influence of sulphur, phosphorus and farmyard manure on yield attributes and yield of maize (Zea mays) in southern Rajasthan conditions

A field experiment was conducted at Instructional Farm, Rajasthan College of Agricultrue, Udaipur, during the rainy (kharif) seasons of 1999 and 2000 on clay-loam soil, to study the effect of sulphur, phosphorus and farmyard manure on yield attributes and yield of maize (Zea mays L). Cobs/plant, rows/cob, cob weight, grain weight/cob, seed index, seed and stover yields, N, P, S and Fe uptake by seed stover and total uptake by maize increased significantly as a result of sulphur application. Application of 60 kg S/ha significantly recorded higher seed and stover yields over 0 and 30 kg S/ha by 29.1 and 11.0 and 25.1 and 9.5% respectively. Application of 40 kg phosphorus increased significantly the yield attributes and seed and stover yields over 20 kg P₂O₆/ha, representing a mean increases of 13.6 and 12.5% respectively. Application of 10 tonnes FYM/ha enhanced significantly the yield attributes and yield over no farmyard manure to the magnitude of 13.9 in seed and 11.2% in stover yield, respectively.