Maize (zea mays L) response to intermittent water application under tropical coastal savanna condition

Abstract

Tropical regions usually experience intermittent rainfall and this affects maize production in most tropical countries where irrigation facilities are inadequate. The pot experiment was conducted at the School of Agriculture Teaching and Research Farm, University of Cape Coast, to investigate the effect of intermittent water application on maize growth and yield parameters. A randomized complete block design was used with three replications. Four different water amounts correspondingly applied at different frequency intervals were used as treatments: 300 cm3 water at 3-day intervals, (T1); 490 cm3 water at 5-day intervals (T2); 770 cm3 water at 7-day intervals (T3); and 1150 cm3 water at 9-day intervals (T4). The results showed no significant difference (p ≤ 5%) among the treatments on the germination rate. However, the effect of the treatments on all the other maize growth and yield parameters determined followed similar trend and was in the order of T3  T2  T4  T1. In conclusion, even though maize production in the study area increased with increasing water amount at long application intervals, prolonged interval of 9-days reduced the maize performance even with increased water amount