Vol. 7, Issue 10 (2018)

Author(s):
Poonam Mandale, Brij Lal Lakaria, Subhash Chandra Gupta, Amar Bahadur Singh, Satish Bhagwatrao Aher and Sonam Sirwaiya

Abstract:
The field experiment was conducted at the Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal to study the performance of twelve different maize cultivars under organic farming during kharif 2014 in a vertisol. The twelve varieties of maize viz. Kanchan, Arawali, Sona-222, JM-8, JM-12, JM-216, Pratap-5, Pratap-6, Proagro-4412, CPGB-4202, Popcorn-1 and Sweetcorn were grown in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications under organic farming. The cultivars were raised with 100 kg N ha^-1 through cattle dung manure, vermicompost and poultry manure in equal proportion (1:1:1) on nitrogen equivalent basis under under rainfed condition. The growth and yield attributes and yield of all the cultivars were recorded at periodic intervals (at 45 DAS, 75 DAS and Harvest). The results of the present study showed that the cultivar Proagro-4412 and Kanchan resulted in higher yield to the tune of 3.4 to 3.5 tons/ha. However Popcorn-1 and Sweetcorn were the least responsive cultivars under organic farming. Cultivars JM-12, JM-8 also resulted higher yield those were significantly lower than Kanchan and Proagro-4412. Most of the maize cultivars were able to perform under organic farming practices. Among the studied cultivars of maize, Proagro-4412 and Kanchan showed better performance as compared to rest varieties.