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Site Specific Nutrient Management in Maize growing districts of Tamil Nadu

Interpretive Summaries

Project Leader:
 Dr. S. Jeyaraman,
Details +

Directorate of Crop Management,
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
Director, Directorate of Crop Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu,
641003

(0422-6611316, fax: 0422-6611416)
directorscms@tnau.ac.in, sjtnau@gmail.com

Project Cooperators: Dr. A. Velayutham, Professor & Head, Central Farm Unit, TNAU Coimbatore, Dr. N. Sakthivel, Assistant Professor, Central Farm Unit, TNAU Coimbatore, Dr. P. Janaki, Assistant Professor, Central Farm Unit, TNAU Coimbatore, Dr. R. Ravi Kesavan, Associate Professor & Head, Maize Research Station, TNAU, Vagarai – 624 613, Palani (Tk), Dindigul (Dt), Tamil Nadu., Dr. Ga. Dheebakaran, Assistant Professor (Agronomy), Maize Research Station, Vagarai, Dr. C. Bharathi, Assistant Professor (Agronomy), Maize Research Station, Vagarai, Dr. R. Kavimani, Professor and Head, Cotton Research Station, Veppanthattai, Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu., Dr. T. Sherene, Assistant Professor (Soil Science), Mr. R. Baskar, Assistant Professor (Agronomy), Dr. B. Chandrasekaran, Professor and Head, SWMRI, Thanjavur., Dr. S. Vallalkannan, Assistant Professor (Agronomy), Dr. S. Suganya, Assistant Professor (Soil Science)..

Staff Member: Dr. T. Satyanarayana tsatya@ipni.net

INDIA-018

Considering the growing importance of Maize in the state of Tamil Nadu, we see an opportunity of improving productivity of maize through right use of nutrients based on the principles of SSNM. Therefore, we have initiated both on-station and on-farm experiments in four important maize growing districts of Tamil Nadu and fertilizer recommendations were made using the Nutrient Expert software.

Objectives:

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of Nutrient Expert as a decision support tool for improved productivity and profitability of maize farmers in Tamil Nadu.

2. Establish nutrient management strategies both under existing and conservation agriculture (CA) based production systems.

3. Understand the response of maize to different growing environments.

Work Plan:

Two Scenarios: Existing CA practice, Conventional tillage practice

Experiment 1

Treatments:


    1. Nutrient Expert guided recommendation for maize (NE)
    2. State Recommendation for maize (SR)
    3. Farmer Fertilizer Practice for maize (FFP)
Experiment 2

    1. Full NPK
    2. Full PK but no N (N omission)
    3. Full NK but no P (P omission)
    4. Full NP but no K (K omission)

Note: These treatments are imposed on adjacent zero and conventional tillage plots as mirror trials

Locations: Thanjavur, Perambalur, Vagarai, Coimbatore

Number of trials: 16 (4 locations in each district)

Distribution: One on-station and three on-farm sites in every district

Fertilizer rates for experiment 1:


    a) Nutrient recommendation from Maize Nutrient Expert for NE treatments
    b) SR- State recommended nutrient rates
    c) FFP- Farmers’ fertilization practice

Fertilizer rate for experiment 2: 180 kg N, 115 kg P2O5 and 160 kg K2O per hectare in NPK plots (Target yield of maize: 8 t/ha).