ASSESSING PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY OF HYBRID MAIZE USING NUTRIENT EXPERT® MODEL SET IN JHAPA.

Abstract

Maize is second important food crop in Nepal and its demand is increasing year by year. However, its productivity is constrained by a number of problems out of which site specific nutrition management is the most important one. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted on a farmer’s farm land at two district of Jhapa viz.Dhukurpani and Gauradha using Nutrient Expert® Maize model from 28th November 2014 to 17th May 2015. The research design was Randomized Completely Block Design with 3 treatments and 11 replication. Three treatments are NE (Nutrient Expert recommendation), GR (Government recommendation), and FP (Farmer practices). Significant difference in terms of no. of plant/m2, kernel no. /row, shelling%, test wt. and Yield at 15.5% moisture was found. Heighest yield (11.99 ton ha-1) was obtained from NE field which was followed by GR (8.67ton ha-1) and FP (7.31ton ha-1). NE based practices gives (4.68 ton) more yield and (Rs. 93545.05) more gross revenue than FP andwith comparision to GR it produced (3.32 ton ha-1) more yield and (Rs. 66404.24) more gross revenue. Comparison of Nutrient Expert® (NE) estimated attainable maize yield and gross revenue given by Nutrient Expert® hybrid maize model versus actual maize yield and gross revenue in farmer field trail NE-based fertilizer recommendations proved to be successful in reaching the yield targets estimated by the software. The actual maize yields recorded in farmer fields were higher than the NE estimated attainable yields. NE recommendation was found better over GR and FP. Higher yield and profitability from hybrid maize was obtained from NE based recommendation.