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Pak. J. Bot., 46(5): 1763-1770, 2014.

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CHANGES IN GROWTH AND YIELD ATTRIBUTES OF TWO SELECTED MAIZE VARIETIES AS INFLUENCED BY APPLICATION OF CHEMICAL (NPK) AND ORGANIC (BAT’S MANURE) FERTILIZERS IN PALA (CHAD) GROWN FIELD

WAGUE RIDINE^1,2, ALBERT NGAKOU^2*, MBAILAO MBAIGUINAM³, FABIENNE NAMBA⁴ AND PATAI ANNA⁵

Abstract: The present experiment was conducted in Pala, region of the Mayo-Kebi West division, in a contribution to improve maize production in Chad. The work was oriented towards the evaluation of the interactions between chemical (NPK) and organic (bat’s manure) fertilizers on growth and yield attributes of TZEE-W and IB selected maize varieties. The experimental design was a (5x2)x4 factorial design in which the main factor was the proportion of organic/chemical fertilizer (%), and the maize variety as the secondary factor, comprising the following six treatments repeated four times: control (T₀) with 0 % NPK and 0 % bat’s manure; T₁ with 100% NPK; T₂ with 100% bat’s manure; T₃ with 75% NPK and 25% bat’s manure; T₄ with 75% bat’s manure  and 25% NPK; T₅ with 50% bat’s manure and 50% NPK. Results show a variation in experimental soils pH of treatments from 5.91 to 7.92, depending on the proportion of the fertilizers applied. There were significant yield differences among treatments, as well as maize varieties. The 50% NPK+50% bat’s manure was found as the best treatment to significantly (p<0.0001) enhance the yield of IB (51.2 t/ha) and TZEE–W (37.9 t/ha) maize varieties compared to their respective controls (7.25 t/ha and 6.76 t/ha). These results suggest that the combination at equal proportion of NPK and bat’s manure could be recommended to sustainably improve maize production in Pala-Chad, thus with a considerable alleviation of the pollution risks that have been attributed to chemical fertilizer.

Key words: Bat’s guano, Chad, Chemical fertilizer, Growth, Maize, Organic fertilizer, Yield.

¹High School of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology, Chad

²Department of Biological Sciences, University of Ngaoundere, PO Box 454 Ngaoundéré, Cameroon

³Research Laboratory of Natural Substances (LRSN), Faculty of Applied & Exact Sciences, University of N’Djamena, Chad

⁴Chad Institute for Agronomic Research and Development (ITRAD), Laboratory of Soil, Water and Plant analysis, N’Djamena, Chad;

⁵University Institute of Agronomic Science and Environment of Sarh, Chad.

^*Corresponding author’s e-mail: aangakou@gmail.com/ alngakou@yahoo.fr; Ph: +237- 99854850