ABSTRACT
The field experiment was to study the effect of urea on the growth and development of maize at different rates of application in South Eastern region of Nigeria. Completely randomized block design was employed in the experiment, comprising four treatments replicated three times to give a total of 12 plots. Each plot had a total of nine maize stands making a total of 108 plant population. The treatments were applied at the rates of 100kg/ha, 150kg/ha and 200kg/ha three and seven weeks after planting. The control had no treatment application. Plant growth and development was assessed using plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, fresh weight and dry weight of plant. Plant yield was assessed using fresh weight of cobs with husk, fresh of cobs without husk and the dry weight of cobs. The data collected from different treatment was subjected to statistical analysis using ANOVA and mean separation was done using LSD at (p˂0.05).The results were presented using the bar chart diagrams. The results shown by the bar chart with reference to the data collected indicated that urea applied at the rate of 100kg/ha, 150kg/ha and 200kg/ha improved the growth, development and yield of Zea mays L. but to varying degrees. the result revealed that the maximum vegetative growth was recorded from the treatment with the highest urea application (200kg/ha) followed by plots treated with 150kg/ha and 100kg/ha urea. Treatment application at the rate of 200kg/ha also gave the highest result in yield of maize. Control had the lowest result at both growth and development stage. Hence, the study revealed that urea (46% N) had a significant increase (p˂0.05) on the plant growth, development and yield of maize of plants.
TABLE
OF CONTENT
Title page i
Certification ii
Declaration iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of contents vi
List of figures ix
List of plates x
Abstract xi
CHAPTER
ONE
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Research
justification 3
1.3 Research objectives 4
CHAPTER
TWO
2.0 Literature review 5
2.1 Maize (zea
mays) 5
2.2 Importance of maize 9
2.3 Origin
and distribution of maize 11
2.4 Maize production 14
2.5 Botany of maize 15
2.6 Climatic requirement 17
2.7 Soil requirement 19
2.8 Planting
20
2.9 Land preparation 20
2.10 Fertilizer applicaton in maize production 21
2.11 Production constraints in maize 22
CHAPTER
THREE
3.0 Materials and methods 25
3.1 Location
of the experimental site 25
3.2 Soil collection/ analysis 25
3.3 Design of
experiment 26
3.4 Planting materials 26
3.5 Treatment
application 27
3.6 Cultural
operations 27
3.7 Data
collection 27
3.7.1 Plant
height 28
3.7.2 Number of
leaves 28
3.7.3 Leaf area 28
3.7.4 Fresh
weight and dry weight of maize plant 28
3.7.5 Fresh weight of cobs with husk and fresh
weight of cobs without husk 28
3.7.6 Dry weight
of cobs 29
3.8 Statistical
analysis 29
CHAPTER
FOUR
4.0 Results 30
4.1 Growth and development parameters 30
4.1.1 Effect of urea at different rate of
application plant height 30
4.1.2 Effect of urea at different rate of
application leaf area 31
4.1.3 Effect of urea at different rate of
application number of leaves 32
4.1.4 Effect of urea at different rate of
application fresh weight and dry weight of plants 33
4.1.5 Effect of urea at different rate of
application fresh weight of cobs with and without husk and dry weight of cobs 34
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 Discussion, conclusion and recommendation 39
5.1 Discussion 39
5.2 Conclusion and
recommendation 42
References 43
Appendix 51
LIST OF FIGURES
Figures
pages
Fig. 1: Effect of
urea at the rates of 100kg/ha, 150kg/ha, 200kg/ha on plant height of maize
grown on the field. 30
Fig. 2: Effect of
urea at the rates of 100kg/ha, 150kg/ha and 200kg/ha on leaf of maize grown on
the field. 31
Fig. 3. Effect of urea at the rates of
100kg/ha, 150kg/ha and 200kg/ha on the number of leaves of maize grown in the
field. 32
Fig. 4. Effect of urea at the rates of
100kg/ha, 150kg/ha and 200kg/ha on the fresh and dry weight of maize grown in
the field. 33
Fig.5: Effect of urea at the rates of 100kg/ha,
150kg/ha and 200kg/ha on the fresh weight of cobs with husk, fresh weight of
cobs without husk and the dry weight of cobs of maize grown in the field. 34
LIST OF PLATES
Plate 1: Harvested maize treated with
100kg/ha 35
Plate 2: Harvested maize treated with
150kg/ha 36
Plate 3: Harvested maize treated with
200kg/ha 37
Plate4: Harvested maize treated without treatment. 38
CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Maize (Zea mays L.) is a genus of the family Graminae (Poaceae), commonly
known as the grass family and originated in Mexico and Central America. It
possesses somatic chromosome number of 20, a genome size of 2.3 gigabase and
more than 32,000 genes (Schnable et al.,
2009). Maize grows well in various agro ecologies and is unparalleled to any
other crop due to its ability to adapt in diverse environments. It has emerged
as a crop of global importance owing to its multiple end uses as a human food
and livestock feed and serves as an important component for varied industrial
products. Globally, about 1016.73 million metric tonnes of maize is produced
every year – the highest among major staple cereals (FAOSTAT 2013). A major
portion of maize produced worldwide is used for animal consumption as it serves
as a vital source of proteins and calories to billions of people in developing
countries, particularly in Africa, and Asia (Shiferaw et al., 2011). Further, it is a source of important vitamins and
minerals to the human body. Along with rice and wheat, maize provides at least
30 % of the food calories to more than 4.5 billion people in 94 developing countries
(Shiferaw, et al., 2011) Maize
provides over 20 % of total calories in human diets in 21 countries and over 30
% in 12 countries that are home to a total of more than 310 million people
(Shiferaw et al., 2011). At present,
the developed world uses more maize than the developing world, but forecasts
indicated that by the year 2050, the demand for maize in the developing
countries will double owing to the rapid growth worldwide. (Rosegrant et al., 1999; Prasanna 2014).
The
continuous cultivation of crops and the adverse environmental factors make the
arable soil deficient in nitrogen along with other plant nutrient (Taize and
Zeiger, 2010; Epstein and Bloom, 2004).
Nitrogen
is an essential element for both fodder quantity and quality as it is a
component of protein and chlorophyll, it is thus essential for photosynthesis,
vegetative and reproductive growth and it often determines yield of maize (Igbal
et al; 2006). Among the various
nitrogen fertilizers, urea is widely used in the Agricultural sector. The high
nitrogen content per unit material (46%), lower cost, ease of storage, along
with solid and liquid formulation options make it a popular choice for farmers
(Andrew et al., 2013).Nitrogen
deficiency alters the composition of the soil much more than any other mineral
nutrient as it is an indispensable elementary constituent of many organic
metabolites including nucleic acids and phytochrome, thus nitrogen is the motor
of plant growth and make up 1 to 4% of dry matter of plants (Taize and Zeiger,
2010). It is widely accepted that plants grown on soils deficient in nitrogen
exhibit very distinctive deficiency symptoms such as poor growth, chlorosis,
necrosis, and causes disorder in many physiological/biochemical characteristics
of plants (Epstein and Bloom, 2004; Taize and Zeiger, 2010)The use of nitrogen
fertilizer along with other nutrients has suggested to enhance crop
productivity (Marschner, 1995) and according to an estimate, 33% nitrogen
fertilizer are being used worldwide for improving cereal production (Raun and
Johnson, 2000). Therefore, this research work was conducted to ascertain the
effect of urea (46% Nitrogen) on the growth and development of maize at
different rates of applications in South Eastern region of Nigeria.
1.2 RESEARCH JUSTIFICATION
Importance of maize cannot be overemphasized in the
developing world, including the potential to mitigate the present food insecurity
and alleviate poverty. Maize has always been preferred to any crop including
cassava because most of the world’s civilization developed around grains rather
than tuber crops. It is an important source of carbohydrate, protein, iron,
vitamin B, and minerals. The improvement of soil fertility through the
application of urea, a good source of nitrogen for sustainable crop production improves
the crop yield, nutrient content and soil pH which is an important
factor that enables developing countries feed billions of its populace. To this
effect, the present research work was carried out to determine the beneficial
effect of urea on the growth and development of maize at different rates of
application in South Eastern region of
Nigeria.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
·
To determine the effect
of urea on the growth and development of maize at different rates of
application.
·
The rate of application
for maximum yield
·
Time of urea application
in maize production in the South Eastern region of Nigeria.
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