Production technology of maize
Maize (Zea mays subsp. mays, from Spanish: maíz after Taíno mahiz), also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico[1] about 8,000 years ago.
Disseminated overseas in early 1500’s. Early types were flints and flours. Considerable variability due to open pollination. Dent types emerged about 1500 years ago. 1940’s: Hybrid corn seed. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, and sweet corn.
The leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are often used in cooking as a starch.
Maize is a popular kharif fodder in Pakistan and finds much use as fodder for livestock and poultry. The crop can be harvested in 60 – 65 days and it can be grown in most parts of the country.
The green stalk has high carbohydrate contents so it is an enchanting feed for poultry. Hybrid seed should not be used for fodder purposes because they have less foliage, and short stature with less nutrition.
Hybrid seed corn development
Develop stable ‘inbred’ lines. Cross two different inbred lines. Plant the seed produced (F1 hybrid). Offspring will yield 2-5X parents. New developments are herbicide resistant (glyphosate and some others) and internal insecticide producing transgenic varieties.
New developments are herbicide resistant (glyphosate and some others) and internal insecticide producing transgenic varieties.
One year crop rotation
- Maize – wheat
- Maize – Barseem
- Maize – B.T Cotton
Two year crop rotation
- Maize – wheat – maize – barseem
- Maize – wheat – cotton – barseem
Soil and climate
Best growth on fertile, well drained, medium-textured soils. Salinity and water logging are harmful at seedling stage. Suitable temperature for germination is 21-32oC.
Better yield of maize is observed at pH 5.5-8 of soil. Continuous water logging for 3 days reduce the yield by 40-45%. Temperature >35oC reduce the pollen. Temperature < 15oC delay the silking and tasseling. 500-750 mm rainfall is required for growth.
Production technologies
- Land preparation
Two to three ploughing after harvesting. Cost of hal 500-600 for ploughing. Use rotavatiour to mix the soil and to degrade the clots 1200-1500. Use ridger to make ridges and furrows and the cost of the ridger per acre is 1000rupees.
Maintain the distance between furrows approximately 75cm. Row to row distance 26-28inches. Plant to plant distance should be 6inches (hybrid) for early sowing. 8-10 inches (hybrid) for late sowing
Plowing has greatly decreased in recent years as planting equipment became available that allow seedling in to standing crops. Conservation tillage system prevent soil erosion, conserve water, and reduce cost of production. Corn can be used with all conservation tillage system.
- Ridge planting
- Flat planting
The land with optimum moisture after rainfall or irrigation is loosened 20-25 cm deep through ploughing or disking 2-3 times, immediately followed by planking.
- Sowing methods
- Ridge sowing
- Manual method (chopa method); its common in Pakistan
- Tractor drawn ridger ; ridges are made by ridger and the distance between the two ridges 27inches.
- P×P= 20-25 cm
- R×R= 75 cm
- Flat sowing
- Automatic tractor drawn drill or manual/hand drill
- R×R= 75 cm
- Thinning after 10-15 days of emergence
- Plant population 70,000 to 75,000/ha
- Sowing times Jan-march for early sowing called as spring crop and maturity of crop within 50-60days. And yield of crop comes in 100-120 Munds. Jun-Aug. for late sowing called as autumn crop in this maturity of crop increases than 60 days. And yield comes from it is 60-80 Munds
- Spring
1st week of February – 1st week of March.
- Autumn
Last week of July – mid of August.
- Seed rate
10-12 kg/acre or 35000 seeds/ acre
- Seed treatment
Immediately after the emergence of plant from Seed to prevent from shoot fly and other insects. Seed is treated with fungicides before sowing so it may prevent from these. Telsa & Aghaz is used as fungicides.
Varieties
- Pakistani varieties
Neelam, Akbar, Sargodha 2002 and Sultan. Sargodha 2002 is a new promising variety. It can remain green in the field for longer duration of time and the production can also be increased to 50 Mounds per acre with an average yield of around 600 mounds per acre.
Some other varieties are followings:
- Sahiwal 2002
- Agati 2002
- Sadaf
- Pakistani hybrids
- Some hybrids of Pakistan are following:
- H- 810
- H- 421
- P-1543
- P-1574
- DEKLB-6724
MAIZE VARIETIES DEVELOP BY DIFFERENT INSTITUTES UNDER NARS
| Khyber | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1974 | Full Season, semi dent, white, 115 days |
| Zia | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1974 | Short season, dent, white, 95 days |
| Sadaf | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1975 | Full season, semident, white, 115 days |
| Changaz | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1976 | Short season, dent, white, 100 days |
| Shaheen | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1977 | Short season, flint, white, 80 days |
| Sarhad white | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1978 | Full season, semi dent, white, 115 days maturity |
| Sarhad Yellow | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1979 | Full season, semi dent, yellow, 115 days maturity |
| Dehqan | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1981 | Full season, semi dent, white, 115 days maturity |
| Faisal | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1981 | Short season, semi dent, yellow, 100 days maturity |
| Golden Pearl | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1981 | Full season, semi dent, yellow, 120 days maturity |
| Afrat | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1982 | Short season, flint, yellow, 100 days maturity |
| Munawar | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1983 | Full season, semi dent, white, 110 days maturity |
| Sunehri | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1985 | Short season, semi dent, yellow, 100 days |
| New Shaheen | CCSI, Pirsabak | 1985 | Short season, flint, white, 75 days maturity |
| Kashmir Gold | NARC, Islamabad | 1983 | Short season, semi dent, yellow, 105 days |
| Gauher | NARC, Islamabad | 1985 | Short season, flint, white, 95 days maturity |
| Azam | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1986 | Short season, semi dent, white, 95 days maturity |
| Ehsan | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1986 | Short season, white, 100 days maturity |
| Sultan | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1986 | Full season, Semi dent, yellow, 115 days maturity |
| Kissan | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1990 | Short season, semi dent, white, 95 days maturity |
| Agaiti-85 | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1995 | Short season, semi dent, yellow, 90 days maturity |
| Golden | MMRI, Yousafwala | 1995 | Full season, semi dent, yellow, 115 days |
| Pahari | CCRI, Pirsabak | 1995 | Short season, semi dent, white 85 days maturity |
| Agaiti-2002 | MMRI, Yousafwla | 2002 | Short season, semi dent, yellow, 90 days maturity |
| Sahiwal-2002 | MMRI, Yousafwala | 2002 | Full season, semi dent, yellow, 120 days maturity |
| Chandni | MMRI, Yousafwala | 2004 | Full season, semi flint, white, 110 days maturity |
| Jalal | CCRI, Pirsabak | 2004 | Short season, flint, white, 95 days maturity |
| Iqbal | CCRI, Pirsabak | 2008 | Full season, semi dent, white, 115 days |
| MMRI Yellow | MMRI, Yousafwala | 2011 | Full season, semi dent, yellow, 120 days |
| Pearl | MMRI, Yousafwala | 2011 | Full season, semi dent, white, 115 days |
Fertilizer application
Two bag of Dap and 1 bag of potash uses at sowing time. 3-4bags of Urea per acre uses at splits form at the time of 3 4 5 6 7 8 irrigation. furadan (dane dar) use in newly flower for shoot borer Fertilizer rate for maize is 250-150-100 kg NPK/ha.
All P & K at the time of sowing
- ½ Nat the time of sowing
- ½ N is added to soil in 2 splits
- 1stwhen the crop is at knee height
- 2nd at tasseling
Application methods
- Side band
- Deep band
- Pop up method (This placement option describes fertilizer placed in contact with the corn seed. Both liquid and dry materials can be used as “pop-up” fertilizer).
- Broadcast
- Seed placed
Seed quantity
33000-35000 seeds are used per acre which almost 8-10 kg. Plant dips one inches in soil. 1000rupees cost for bed planting both sides of the ridge. 1500rupees cost for bed planting on single side of the ridge. Irrigation
First irrigation should be done after 3 weeks of sowing. Later, irrigate the field according to the crop requirements. It should be kept in mind that no water remains in field or else plants will die. Maize is drought sensitive crop. It require 500-750 mm of water. An irrigation within 10-15 days interval results in good growth.
Moisture stress at critical stages i.e.
- Flowering
- Fertilization
- Milking
- Yield reduction up to 40%.
- 6-10 irrigations requires depending on climate, soil type and method of sowing.
| Phases | Irrigations DAS |
| Germination phase | Two irrigations 1st after sowing, 2nd as life irrigation 4th day. |
| Vegetative phase | Three irrigation 12, 25, 36th DAS |
| Flowering phase | Two irrigation on 48, 60th day |
| Maturity phase | One irrigation on 72nd day. |
Weed control
According to an idea weeds damages 20-50% of crop. so control of weed should do very carefully
Chemical control
| Pre- emergence | Post- emergence |
| Primextra Gold at 800 ml/acre | Atrazine at 350 ml/acre(15 days after weed emergence) |
| Pendimethalin at 1300 ml/acre | |
| Dewal Dold at 800 ml/acre |
Cultural control
It is done manually. Manual hoeing about 25 days after sowing. It is suitable for small scale
Disease:
For the control of Root borer, funnel (carbinran and fafanone) is applied on the plants. First application of funnel is done, on 3-4 leaves emergence and second time is applied at keen height of the plant
Insects of maize
Shoot fly :
Crop growth retarded in case of shoot fly attack it sucks the plant and also damages the newly branches of the plant.
Stem borer:
In autumn maize this attacks in April. This maize borer severely damages the crop. It effects the center part of the corn and start eating them.
Army worm:
The larvae of the army worms comes in the form of army and attacks on the veins of leaves and eat the green part and hole becomes visible in the leave
Harvesting
70% corns fall downwards to the ground, still remain attach to the plants. And become dot/ layer on the grain. Maize crop is harvested at moisture content 20-25%. Cobs are remove from standing crop and dried under sunlight until the moisture content of the grains is <15%
The fodder crop should be harvest when 50% of the flowers are apparent. The crop is ready to harvest in 55 – 65 days. Yield depends upon the variety used like mentioned earlier if good variety is used and all the cultural practices have been done properly yields up to 500 mounds per acre can be obtained
Shelling of cobs
Hand operated or powered Sheller
Storage
Shelled maize grains after cleaning are stored in jute sacks in a cool, dry and airy place, either on a cement floor or on wooden planks; it should not be stored on earthen floors. The temperature of store room is kept 20-250C while relative humidity is maintained at 30-50 %.
Labor cost:
| Plantation of seed on ridges | 1500 rupees |
| Plantation of seed on beds (for bed sowing) | 1000 rupees |
| Rotavator | 1200 rupees |
| Ridger | 1000 rupees/acre |
| Ploughing | 2000 rupees |
| Tube well on electricity | 400 rupees/hrs |
| Tube well on Tractor | 700-800 pees/hrs |
