EVALUATION OF CHICKEN MANURE AND AMMONIUM SULPHATE FERTILIZER ON YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYSL.) AND STRIGA HERMONTHICA (DEL.) BENTH INFESTATION AND SEEDBANK

Abstract

Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth infests millions of hectares of land under cereals in subSaharan Africa, reducing production and threatening food security. A field experiment was carried out at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) trial farms at Nyankpala. The trial was to determine the combination of maize varieties, ammonium sulphate and chicken manure that could enhance the performance of maize in infested Striga field. In addition, the effect of treatments on the control of the parasite and its seed bank was also evaluated. The experiment was a 2 х 3 х 4 factorial study, laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The three factors used were, ammonium sulphate at 0, 40, 80 and 120 kg/ha chicken manure at 0, 3, and 6 t/ha and maize varieties, Wang-dataa and Bihilifa.The results indicated that most of the parameters assessed such as days to 50% flowering, number of ears, grain weight, cob weight, and grain yield were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by the combination of ammonia sulphate and chicken manure. Application of 3 t/ha chicken manure plus 120 kg/ha ammonium sulphate to Wang-dataa gave highest grain yield of 3085 kg/ha and cob weight of 4716.7 kg/ha. Striga count was not significantly (p> 0.05) affected by variety, chichen manure and ammonium sulphate fertilizers. However the application of chicken manure at 3 t/ha combined with 80 kg/ha of ammonium sulphate reduced striga from 17.3/ m2 8 WAP to 12.0/ m2 10 WAP (Table 7). Application of chicken manure alone reduced Striga seed number from 3.8/ m2 8 WAP to 25.2/ 6m2 10 WAP (Table 6). Grain yield positively correlated with plant height (r=0.62**), number of ears at harvest (r=0.70**) and cob weight(r=0.93***).