~ 1466 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2020; 8(3): 1466-1473 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 www.chemijournal.com IJCS 2020; 8(3): 1466-1473 © 2020 IJCS Received: 11-03-2020 Accepted: 13-04-2020 Archana Kumari Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, India Sanjay Kumar Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, India Mainak Ghosh Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, India Swaraj Kumar Dutta Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, India Amit Kumar Pradhan Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, BAU, Sabour, Bihar, India Vinod Kumar Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, India Corresponding Author: Vinod Kumar Department of Agronomy, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bihar, India Effect of tillage, sowing time and irrigation levels on soil available moisture and water use efficiency of maize ( Zea mays L.) Archana Kumari, Sanjay Kumar, Mainak Ghosh, Swaraj Kumar Dutta, Amit Kumar Pradhan and Vinod Kumar DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/chemi.2020.v8.i3t.9401 Abstract A field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2016-17at Research farm of Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour, to evaluate the effect of tillage, sowing time and irrigation levels on soil available moisture and water use efficiency of maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment comprised of two tillage methods viz. conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT) in main plot, two sowing dates- 30 th October and 10 th November as sub-plot and three irrigation levels (I2 - 2 irrigations at six-leaf stage and tasseling, I4 - 4 irrigations at four-leaf stage, ten leaf stage, tasseling and milking and I6 - 6 irrigations at four-leaf stage, eight leaf stage, ten leaf stage, tasseling, milking and dough stage) as sub-sub plot treatment. The results indicated that the seasonal evapotranspiration (SET) increased significantly with increase in number of irrigation application. With the increase in two irrigations from I2 to I4 the grain yield water use efficiency (WUEy) increased by 30 percent while with further increase in two irrigations (I6) resulted in 10 percent reduction in WUEy over I4 irrigation level. However, the I6 irrigation level recorded 17 percent higher WUEy over I2 irrigation level. Although grain yield were higher with six irrigations but ssignificantly higher water use efficiency was obtained due to ZT, early planting and I4 irrigation level. Keywords: Zero tillage, date of sowing, water use efficiency of maize and irrigation Introduction In India, maize has been widely cultivated as a rainfed crop during kharif season but it can also be successfully grown during the rabi season as yield of rabi maize is considerably higher than that of kharif maize (Patel et al., 2006) [16] . The rabi maize has been widely accepted by farmers of Bihar with a cultivated area of 0.28 million ha with total production of 2.1 million tonnes (Directorate of Economics & Statistics, 2018-19) [4] . To augment the higher maize yield per unit area and sufficient water use efficiency, proper crop agronomic management is necessary. Sowing of the crop at right time ensures better plant growth, boosting the maize yield by increasing the resource use efficiency and also by inhibiting weed growth. Tillage system is an integral part of crop production and it has been confirmed by different scientists that conventional intensive tillage increases soil compaction, reduces soil aggregates stability, disrupts soil productivity, decreases retention and transportation of water and solutes and exacerbates losses due to run-off erosion (Goddard et al., 2008) [6] . In contrast many beneficial effects of zero-till and minimum tillage have also been reported like increased porosity, organic carbon, water holding capacity and decreased bulk density. It is well documented that zero tillage and crop residues management improves soil health and quality by improving various soil properties like reduced penetration resistance as well as the apparent density of soil that checks the soil evaporation rate (Rivas et al., 1998) [20] . Water infiltration and soil aeration that depend on bulk density are also modified (Rice et al., 1987) [19] . Zero tillage affects water availability to plants, essentially through soil water capture and root uptake capacity (Gajri et al., 1994; Ojeniyi, 1986) [5, 14] . Zero tillage has also been reported to increase total nitrogen and microbial biomass in various soils (McCarty et al., 1995) [10] . The crop residues in zero tillage become a mulch over the soil surface that protects the soil productive layer against run-off reducing the nutrient loss and erosion through runoff