Abstract:
The experiment was
conducted at the Regional Agricultural
Research Station, BARI, Ishwardi, Pabna,
Bangladesh, during 2013-2014 and 2014-
2015 to introduce maize as relay crop with
T. Aman rice under different agronomic
practices for determine the production
potentials. The experiment was design split
plot with three replications. The agronomic
management practices included four plant
spacing viz. S1=75 cm×20 cm (66666
plants/ha), S2=60 cm×20 cm (83333
plants/ha), S3=50 cm×20 cm (100000
plants/ha) and S4=40 cm×20 cm (125000
plants/ha) and four soil management
practices viz. M1=soil mulching at 25 DAE,
M2=earthing up at 25 DAE, M3=straw
mulching at 25 DAE and M4= without
earthing up and mulching (control). Seeds
were relayed by dibbling manually in
10 days before the harvest of T. Aman rice.
Results showed that an increasing plant
spacing increased leaf area Index (LAI),
total dry matter (TDM), crop growth rate
(CGR) and light energy interception (LEI).
Grain yield was higher in S3 spacing (8.44
t/ha) than others (S4 8.11 t/ha, S2 7.34 t/ha
and S1 6.89 t/ha). Among the soil
management practices, M2 increased LAI,
TDM, CGR, LEI as well as grain yield.
Moreover, M2 and M1 gave similar grain
yield (8.22 t/ha and 8.02 t/ha), that were
significantly greater than other two soil
management practices (M3 7.55 t/ha and M4
6.98 t/ha). From the economic point of
view, combination of S3M1 gave better
performance with gross margin of Tk.
95000/ha and BCR of 2.17. On the basis of
results, S3M1 combination was suitable for
growing maize under relay sowing with
T. Aman rice.
