Abstract
Two year experiment was conducted in the Teaching and Research Farm of Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka to: compare the effect of combined MSW and NPK fertilizer application on yield components, yield and proximate composition of maize. A 4 × 4 factorial experiment in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was used for the study. The two factors: MSW (0, 1000, 1500 and 2000 kg/ha) and NPK (20:10:10) (0, 100, 200 and 300 kg/ha) were combined to get 16 treatment combinations. Sole application of 2000 kg/ha of MSW and 300 kg/ha of NPK rates were observed to achieve the highest yield of maize in 2011 and 2012 seasons respectively among their treatment rates. Complementary application of MSW with NPK was significantly higher than either sole application with respect to plant attributes measured. Combination of 2000 kg/ha of MSW with 300 kg/ha of NPK had significantly higher effect than other interactions in both years and was found satisfactory to achieve the best yield performance and proximate composition of maize in the study.
Key words: Municipal solid waste, NPK, maize yield, yield components, proximate composition.
