Response of maize to inter row mulch application at different growth stage of maize for small scale agro-pastoralist

Abstract

Tolessa Taye, Natol Bekele and Yonas Shimalis

This experiment was conducted at yabello districts to study the effect of mulch application at different growth stage of maize (Mulch application at sowing, vegetative flowering and at grain filling stages). Mulch application at different growth stage of maize shows significant difference at all growth stage of maize. The highest and lowest grain yield were obtained from mulch applied at sowing time and no mulch applied at all growth respectively. The application of mulches at sowing stage gave a yield advantage of 66.4 and 52.48% of the farmers or no mulched plots in Borana lowland. The mulch application at sowing stages show significantly different from all the treatments except mulch application at vegetative growth stage. Any grass and straw can be used as mulching materials. The effectiveness of mulch application was depending on the moisture or rainfall availability during the time of mulch applications. Application of mulches also helps the farmers to avoid early establishment of weeds population so that it enhance the chance for maize to exploit the limited available moisture in moisture stress area of Borana lowlands.