Abstract
AbstractStriga hermonthica infestation causes significant losses of maize yield in the Nigerian savannas and several technologies have been developed and promoted to control Striga in maize. However, since no single technology has been found to be effective against Striga, integrated management is needed to achieve satisfactory and sustainable Striga control. Both on-station and on-farm trials were undertaken from 2013 to 2015 in Bauchi and Kano States of Nigeria to evaluate the performance of integrated Striga control technologies. In the on-station trials, a soybean–maize rotation did not suppress Striga in maize in either location. However, nitrogen application suppressed and reduced Striga infection, except in Bauchi in 2014. The soybean–maize rotation accompanied by N application reduced Striga damage in both locations. On farmers’ fields, rotating soybean with maize significantly reduced Striga infection. At the same time, the use of maize varieties with a combined tolerance to drought and resistance to Striga parasitism also increased maize grain yield on farmers’ fields, probably due to three factors: a reduction in Striga infection, reduced effects of a mid-season moisture deficit, and increased uptake of nutrients from the soil. We concluded that the use of Striga-resistant maize varieties in combination with the application of N fertilizer and rotation with soybean could increase the productivity of maize in Striga-infested fields in the Nigerian savannas.
Highlights
Maize is in importance to sorghum and millet in West Africa due to its diverse uses as human food, livestock feed, cash crop, and raw material for agro-allied industry (Alabi, 2008)
Results from the on-station trials show that N application generally suppressed and reduced Striga infection N application alone did not reduce the Striga population under high level of infestation
Rotating maize with soybean did not reduce Striga infection in the on-station trials and this was because the Striga infestation was too high to be reduced by a single year of rotation
Summary
Maize is in importance to sorghum and millet in West Africa due to its diverse uses as human food, livestock feed, cash crop, and raw material for agro-allied industry (Alabi, 2008). Average grain yield currently stands at 1.6 t ha−1 on farmers’ fields (FAOSTAT, 2017) compared to the higher yields of about 5–7 t ha−1 obtained at research stations in the region (Adnan et al, 2017) This figure is approximately 75% lower than the world average yield (5.5 t ha−1) and much lower when compared to the yields obtained in countries such as USA (7.8 t ha−1), Canada (7.2 t ha−1), and South Africa (2.6 t ha−1) (FAOSTAT, 2014).
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