Attempts have been made to increase maize productivity and yield in Nigeria by doubling the recommended population density under the same agronomic practices but with an additional 50% increase in fertilizer application. However, the prevailing cost of farm labour, the market price of other inputs and output will determine the benefit. Therefore, this study was to assess the economic benefit of using double population density in maize. Four maize varieties LNTP-W, BR9943DMRSR, LNTP-Y and BR9928DMRSR were tested under recommended population density (RD) of 53,333 plants/ha and double plant density (DD) of 106,666 plants/ha at Ilora and Ile-Ife out-stations of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Nigeria in 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons. Plant spacing of 75cm inter-row and 25cm intra-row was used for both RD and DD. Similar agronomic practices were carried out in both RD and DD but an extra 50% fertilizer was used on DD plots. The experiment was laid out on 3m by 3m plots in a split-plot design with three replications. Data on cost and yield were collected. The analytical technique used was partial budgeting analysis which includes Gross benefit (GB), Net Benefit (NB) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR). The result of yield performance showed that at both locations, LNTP-W performed best under RD and DD followed by BR9943DMRSR. The result of partial budgeting showed that NB of LNTP-W was the highest under RD (N206,146) and DD (N152,724), followed by BR9943DMRSR (N169,894) under RD and (N121,242) under DD. The BCR result showed that LNTP-W was the most economically viable variety under RD (1.18) and DD (0.72). Therefore, LNTP-W is recommended for adoption by farmers under both RD and DD population densities, it satisfied both the necessary and sufficient conditions for economic benefit feasibility.

Keywords: Cost, Profitability, Maize (Zea mays), Partial budgeting, Population densities