Response of Maize (Zea Mays L.) To Soil Moisture Stress Condition at Different Growth Stages, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Abstract

Water resources availability is a crucial limiting factor for crop production in arid and semi-arid area. Consuming these limited resources carefully and efficiently is unquestionable. The planning of irrigation permitting to the water stress tolerance and water use efficiency of crops remains the only way to guarantee the continuity of production in an arid area. Considering this an experiment has been conducted in Melkassa Agricultural Research Center where shortage of moisture is a problem. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications having 15 experimental treatments. The treatments had four crop growing seasons or stages (Initial, Development, midseason and late season stages. Melkassa II maize variety was used for seed materials. Water stress had significant different effect on grain yield, above ground dry biomass, plant height and water productivity (P 0.05) difference in grain yield among treatments stressed only at initial stage, late stage and non-stressed. However, stressing of maize at development and mid-season crop growth stage led to significant reduction of grain yield, above ground dry biomass and plant height. Therefore, stressing maize at combination of development stages and mid stages was more sensitive with significant yield penalty.