World Journal of Agricultural Research, 2014, Vol. 2, No. 6A, 13-17 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/wjar/2/6A/3 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/wjar-2-6A-3 Maize Production under No-Tillage System in Nepal Tika Bahadur Karki * , Jiban Shrestha Nepal Agricultural Research Council, National Maize Research Program, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal *Corresponding author: tbkarki2003@gmail.com Received October 11, 2014; Revised November 12, 2014; Accepted December 28, 2014 Abstract Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second most important staple food crop after rice in Nepal. In Nepal, maize is grown under intensive tillage ssystem of 2-3 ploughings for land preparation and atleast two intercultural operations for weeding and earthling-up operation. Alternative to conventional tillage system, no-till system is a specialized type of conservation tillage consisting of a one-pass planting and fertilizer operation in which the soil and the surface residues are minimally disturbed. No-tillage maize production conserves soil and water and reduces capital investment in machinery for land preparations and intercultural operations, but most important to many producers, no-tillage can improve maize yields. However, very limited works have been done so far in Nepal. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this article to highlight the importance of no till in maize in the hills of Nepal and some of the practical tips to adopt the no- till maize production system in Nepal. Keywords: maize production, no tillage and Nepal Cite This Article: Tika Bahadur Karki, and Jiban Shrestha, “Maize Production under No-Tillage System in Nepal.” World Journal of Agricultural Research, vol. 2, no. 6A (2014): 13-17. doi: 10.12691/wjar-2-6A-3. 1. Introduction Maize (Zea mays L.) is the second most important staple food crop after rice in Nepal. The consumption of maize is 45.5 kg/capita/day as against 37.9 in wheat and 78.0 in rice in Nepal. Maize only contributes about 43.5 % of total edible food production in the country [1]. However, the statistics shows that the contribution of maize to agricultural gross domestic with maize area and production nearly doubling. In the hills, maize is grown under intensive tillage ssystem of 2-3 ploughings for land preparation and atleast two intercultural operations for weeding and earthing-up operation [7]. Intensive tillage causes excessive breakdown of aggregates leading to soil erosion in higher-rainfall area. Intensive tillage can also have a negative impact on environmental quality by accelerating soil carbon loss and green house gas emission [13]. With recent increases in fuel prices, tillage now accounts for a higher proportion of production costs than harvesting does [5]. Such systems have fueled interest in finding tillage systems that minimize negative impacts to the environment while sustaining economic crop productivity. More recently, conservation tillage (no tillage with residue retention) was identified in recent literature reviews [6]. Wilhelm et al. [17] as being necessary if producers hope to increase or maintain soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. West and Post [16] concluded in their extensive review of results from 67 long-term experiments from around the world that when management was changed from conventional tillage to a no-till system, a significant increase in SOC was obtained, but in their analysis they found approximately 85% of that change occurred in the surface 7-cm of soil. It is also important to note that only six of their 276 paired comparisons were from sampling depths greater than 30-cm. West and Post [16] also noted that increased cropping diversity appeared to increase SOC levels, but these increases were not as much as those obtained from utilization of some form of reduced or no- till system. Recent reports by Pikul et al. [12] and Varvel [15] from long-term conventionally tilled experiments indicated similar results to those of West and Post [16] in that even with increased cropping diversity, SOC levels were reduced or at best maintained in the surface 30-cm after 15–20 years. The no-till system is a specialized type of conservation tillage consisting of a one-pass planting and fertilizer operation in which the soil and the surface residues are minimally disturbed [10]. The surface residues of such a system are of critical importance for soil and water conservation. In the sloppy terraces, the planting is done by manually operated Jab planter that makes a small hole of 2-5 cm depth and drills the seed into it. According to Lal [8], no-tillage systems eliminate all pre-planting mechanical seedbed preparation except for the opening of a narrow (2-3 cm wide) strip or small hole in the ground for seed placement to ensure adequate seed/soil contact. The entire soil surface is covered by crop residue mulch. 2. Advantages of No-Tillage in the Maize Based System No-tillage maize production conserves soil and water and reduces capital investment in machinery for land preparations and intercultural operations, but most important to many producers, no-tillage can improve maize yields. For example, in a 15-year study at Virginia Tech, no-tillage maize planted into a rye cover crop out-