EVALUATION OF HYBRID MAIZE IN RESPONSE TO DROUGHT STRESS

Abstract

In order to evaluate drought stress effects on yield and yield components of five hybrid maize varieties, an experiment was conducted from October 2015 to April 2016 in the Agronomy research farm (25.560 N latitude and 88.410 E longitude) of Hajee Mohammad Danish Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200. The experiment was designed at RCBD with three replications. Three irrigation levels namely, control (zero irrigation) (I1), one Irrigation (I2) and two Irrigation (I3) were used for experiment. BARI Hybrid Maize (M-7), Hybrid Maize PAC339, Hybrid Maize PS-999, Krishibid Hybrid Maize KS-505, Krishibid Hybrid Maize PS-102 were also used for this experiment. Condition represented the effects of irrigation treatment was significant on plant height, cob weight, cob length, grains per cob, 100-grain weight, grain, straw and biological yield and harvest index. Control treatment (zero irrigation) resulted the minimum of all mentioned factors. The highest plant height 226.95 cm was obtained from I3 while the lowest 161.90 cm was found at I1. The maximum cob weight of 219.55 g was obtained from I3 while the minimum cob weight of 150.67 g was found at I1. The maximum grain per cob was received from I3 345.62 and the minimum was found from I1 228.87. There was statistical significance in 100 grain weight among the treatments. The highest 100-grain weight (42.98 g) was found at I3 while the lowest 37.88 g was given by I1. Irrigation played positive role in increasing straw yield of maize; Treatment I3 produced the maximum straw yield of 7.38 t ha-1 while treatment I1 produced the minimum 4.87 t ha-1. Significant variation was also observed in the biological yield of maize under the influence of irrigation treatments. The highest biological yield (14.54 t ha-1) was obtained at I3 and the lowest biological yield 9.58 t ha-1 was obtained at I1. Irrigation treatments had also considerable effect on grain yield. Treatment I3 produced the highest grain yield (7.023 t ha-1) while I1 produced the lowest 4.719 t ha-1. Effect of varieties was significant on cob weight, cob length, and grain per cob, 100 grain weight, and biological yield. Krishibid Hybrid Maize KS-505 was significantly higher performance in all of the parameters of hybrid maize varieties. Interaction of irrigation and cultivar was significant on cob weight, cob length, and grains per cob, 100-grain weight, straw, grain and biological yield. On the basis of dissimilarities the results obtained, the I3 treatment and Krishibid Hybrid Maize KS-505 might be suitable for maize productivity under the condition similar to the present study.