Abstract
Environmental factors causing low seedling emergence often observed in tropical maize (Zea mays L.) are poorly documented. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of weather factors on maize seedling emergence at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching and Research Farm (OAU TRF). Five maize varieties sown weekly, in 3-replicate RCBD experiments throughout the 2016 and 2017 cropping seasons, were used to monitor emergence percentage (E %), emergence index (EI) and emergence rate index (ERI). Climatic data were obtained from the automatic weather station located on the farm. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) environmental effect for all traits. Soil moisture (Sm), relative humidity, air temperature, heat unit and soil heat flux (SHF) showed significant (P ≤ 0.05) correlation coefficients with all traits, but there was no relationship between the emergence traits and grain yield. Stepwise multiple regression and sequential path coefficient analyses indicated that increased Sm, rather than rainfall per se, increased the speed of emergence. Minimum air temperature and SHF with direct effects, and heat unit with indirect effect, negatively affected emergence the most. Relatively low Tmin and SHF, along with just enough Sm maximized seedling emergence in the rainforest agro-ecology of southwestern Nigeria.
Highlights
The demand for maize (Zea mays L.) grains in subSaharan Africa (SSA) has continued to increase because of its importance in human food, livestock feed, and industrial raw material
FAO (2016) puts maize production in Nigeria at about 11 MT/year compared to 384 MT/year obtained in the USA
Radiation had no significant r-values with seedling vigour traits, whereas air temperature and heat units (HU) were significantly correlated with the emergence traits; the higher the air temperature and HU, the lower the emergence percentage, and the slower the rate of emergence
Summary
The demand for maize (Zea mays L.) grains in subSaharan Africa (SSA) has continued to increase because of its importance in human food, livestock feed, and industrial raw material. There is, an urgent need for increased maize production in these regions to meet the constant demand for its grains. Environmental factors such as poor soil conditions, especially decreasing nitrogen level, drought, increased urbanization, poor or inaccurate agronomic practices, and poor climatic conditions have affected maize production, limiting it from attaining the desired production levels, despite maize crop improvements over the years from active breeding programs. High emergence percentage followed by high seedling vigour and vigorous vegetative growth are necessary conditions for high final stand of the crop on the field which, in turn, leads to higher grain yield
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