Sarhad J. Agric. Vol.28, No.1, 2012 REPONSE OF MAIZE TO VARIOUS NITROGEN SOURCES AND TILLAGE PRACTICES KAWSAR ALI*, SHAD KHAN KHALIL*, FAZAL MUNSIF*, ABDUR RAB**, KHALID NAWAB***, AMIR ZAMAN KHAN*, ANWAR KAMAL **** and ZAFAR HAYAT KHAN* * Department of Agronomy, Agricultural University, Peshawar – Pakistan. ** Department of Horticulture, Agricultural University, Peshawar – Pakistan. *** Department of Agriculture Extension Education & Communication, Agricultural University, Peshawar – Pakistan. **** Department of Soil & Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University, Peshawar – Pakistan. ABSTRACT Field trial was conducted to study the effect of tillage practices, mineral N and organic manures on yield and yield components of maize (Zea mays L.) at the New Developmental Farm of Agricultural University, Peshawar during summer 2010. The experiment was consisted of ten fertilizer treatments (control, nitrogen alone, FYM alone, poultry manure alone, 75% N (mineral) + 25% FYM, 50% N (mineral) + 50% FYM, 25 % N (mineral) + 75% FYM, 75% N + 25% PM, 50% N (mineral) + 50% PM and 25% N (mineral) + 75 % PM) and three tillage practices (reduce, conventional and deep tillage). Nitrogen (N) treatments were kept in the sub plots, whereas tillage practices (T) was allotted to the main plots. The experiment was carried out in randomized complete block design with split plot arrangement having three replications. The results revealed that tillage practices and N significantly affected all parameters under study. Interactions between N x T were remained non significant for all parameters . Application of mineral N with organic manure in combination resulted in increased yield and yield components. Application of half mineral N and half PM produced higher ear length, grain ear -1 , grain yield and biological yield of maize, while 50% FYM and 50 % N resulted in maximum rows ear -1 and grain row -1 . Tillage influenced yield and yield components of maize and higher number of rows ear -1 , grain row ear -1 , grains ear -1 , ear length, thousand grain weight, grain yield and biological yield was produced by conventional tillage. It was concluded that organic and inorganic N application and conventional tillage had beneficial effect on yield and yield components of maize. Key Words: Maize, nitrogen, Organic manures and tillage. Citation: Ali, K., S.K. Khalil, F. Munsif, A. Rab, K. Nawab, A.Z. Khan, A. Kamal and Z.H. Khan. 2012. Response of Maize (Zea Mays L.) to various nitrogen sources and tillage practices. Sarhad J. Agric. 28(1): 9-14 INTRODUCTION Maize (Zea mays L.) is an exhaustive cereal crop. It is a multipurpose crop that provides food for human, feed for animals especially poultry and livestock and raw material for the industries (Khaliq et al., 2004). It is the third most important cereal crop after wheat and rice while in the farming system of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa it range 2 nd after wheat in its importance. In 2010 it was cultivated on an area of 981 (000 ha) with a total production of 36581 (000 tones) in Pakistan while during the same season its area of cultivation and production in KP was 512 (000 ha) and 1468 (000 tones) respectively (MINFAL 2010). Green revolution caused significant increase in crop production particularly in cereal crops like wheat, maize and rice in Pakistan however it is now shadowed by new challenges related to soil degradation such as erosion, decline of soil organic matter content, and problems caused by tillage operations and ever escalating price of chemical fertilizers (Farhad et al., 2009). Increasing yield and decreasing production cost as well as to maintain soil health is newly emerging challenge for agricultural scientists. In order to meet these challenges researchers interest increase in bringing sustainability in agriculture. Several options are currently considered by researchers in order over come these challenges, these include, no-till (NT) (Al- kaisi and Yin; 2005), integrated nutrient management (INM) (Angle et al., 1993) and organic farming (Sarawad et al., 2005). Tillage as a practice in crop production system can affect soil environmental components that are important to plant growth, such as N pool status and N availability. The effect of any tillage system on maintaining adequate nutrient levels in the soil system, particularly N for crop production, is therefore critical to the sustainability of crop production systems. The integration of appropriate tillage and N management systems for sustainable crop production thus presents a significant challenge (Mehdi et al., 1999; Saiju and Singh, 2001). Tillage practices are, generally believed, the primary cause of soil disturbance and lose of soil organic matter. This problem can be resolved by changing from conventional tillage to less destructive tillage known as reduced and conservation tillage (Bahadar et al., 2007). Soil erosion, production cost and consumption of fossil fuels can be reduced by reduce tillage