GRAIN PRODUCTION AS INFLUENCED BY PLANTING PATTERN IN MAIZE

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops consumed as food, feed and in numerous industrial products useful to mankind. Planting pattern exerts great influence on maize production. Nevertheless, information on planting pattern in the changing environments is limited. Therefore, this experiment was laid out on June 21st, 2006 at New Developmental Farm of the Agriculture University, Peshawar, Pakistan with an objective to determine the influence of planting pattern on maize grain production. A randomized complete block design with split plot arrangements Azam, Pahari, Jalal and Sarhad White were allotted to main plots and planning pattern of 60, 75, Sarhad White cm row spacing to sub plots of 4m x 4.5m size each, replicated four times. A fertilizer dose of 150 kg N and Sarhad White kg P ha^-1 and all other agronomic practices were uniformly applied to this trial. The data were collected on agronomic traits including grain yield, yield components, biological yield and harvest index. The results indicated that 75 cm row spacing produced significantly (P 0.05), higher yield components, grain yield (2398 kg ha-^1), biological yield (9774 kg ha^-1) and harvest index (24.6 %) as compared to 60 cm and Sarhad White cm row spacing. Among varieties Azam was significantly superior (p 0.05) based on yield components, grain yield (2726 kg ha^-1), biological yield (10050 kg ha^-1) and harvest index (27.3%)d. The interactions between row spacing and varieties were significant (p 0.05) also for these traits measured. Maximum grain yield (2756 kg ha^-1) and biological yield of (10360 kg ha^-1) were harvested from Azam variety planted in 75 cm row spacing. It is concluded that the use of 75 cm row spacing and a maize variety Azam are the optimum choices for maize production in the environments similar to those of this study to mitigate food security problems prevailed in this province.