Abstract

Field experiments were conducted to find out the effects of tillage practices and intercropping on the growth and yield of maize at the teaching and research farm, university of Ado Ekiti, southwest Nigeria during the 2006 early and late growing seasons. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replication with tillage practices (CT, MT, NT) assigned to main plots and cropping systems to subplots. At 8 WAP, the tallest plants of 134 cm were got with CT and sole cropping while the shortest plant, about 84 cm, was obtained from NT and intercropping. Application of CT and solecropping also had the widest leaf of 451cm² per plant while a leaf about 231 cm² was obtained from NT and intercropping. The same trend was obtained for the number of leaves per plant with CT and solecropping having the highest 11 leaves per plant. Land equivalent ratio was greater than unity in all treatments during both seasons. Aggressivity was negative for CT and MT and positive for NT while relative crowding coefficient was positive for all treatments. Maize grain yield was significantly highest, about 3 tonsha^-1, under CT and solecropping while the least yield, 2.12 tonsha^-1, was obtained from NT and intercropping. The results indicated that maize growth, intercropping efficiency and yield were well supported with CT.

Key words:  Tillage, intercropping, growth, yield.