Response of Maize Varieties (Zea mays) to Biochar Amended Soil in Lafia, Nigeria

Abstract

The experiments were conducted during 2010 and 2011 at the research and teaching farm of the college of agriculture, Lafia, Nasarawa state, Nigeria. To determine the effect of biochar-amended soil on the performance of maize varieties (Zea mays). The study was carried out in screen house and field. The first phase of the experiment: treatment consist of three rates of biochar: 0, 100, 200g/pot and maize varieties (Oba 98 and Sammaize 18). The second phase of the experiment was carried out in the field; the treatment consisted of three levels of biochar: 0, 5, 10t/ha and two varieties of maize (oba 98 and sammaize 18) factorialy combined to form six treatments. The experimental design used was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The result showed that 10t/ha Biochar had a significant (P=0.05) effect on the percentage germination, seedling height, seedling stem girth, number of roots, length of roots and seedling vigour index. Application of 10t/ha of biochar produced the highest grain weight of 5.05 t/ha and 5.54 t/ha in both years; which is at par with application of 5t/ha of biochar, but higher than control (3.5t/ha and 3.32t/ha) in both years. However, maize varieties did not showed any significant effect in both cropping season, but oba 98 proofs to be superior to the other variety in most of the character assessed. Interaction between biochar and maize varieties did not produced any significant effect