Abstract:
Maize is a major staple food crop for small holder farmers in Northwestern Ethiopia, in
particular to North Mecha district. However, agronomic management practices such as
approperate plant spacing and use of improved varieties are quite important for enhancing
maize production. Hence, a field experiment was conducted during 2019 main cropping
season at North Mecha district Northwestern Ethiopia to determine the ef ects of inter and
intra row spacing on yield and yield components of maize varieties. The experiment
consisted of the factorial combinations of two hybrid maize varieties (“BH-540” and “BH- 661”), three inter-row spacing (65, 75 and 85 cm) and three intra-row spacing (25, 30 and
35 cm) with a total of 18 treatments in RCBD with three replications. The results of the
study had shown that there were highly significant dif erences due to the main ef ects of
varieties on days to 50% tasseling, 50% silking, and 90% maturity. There was also highly
significant dif erence due to the main ef ects of both variety, inter- and intra-row spacing
on leaf area index, ear length and number of grains per row and ear diameter. A very
highly significant interaction ef ect of variety, inter- and intra-row spacing on leaf area
index, above ground dry biomass yield, grain yield and harvest index and highly
significant in thousand grain weight. Generally, higher grain yield and above ground dry
biomass were obtained from BH-661 at 65x25 cm (11.39 t∙ha
−1 and 34.1 t∙ha
−1)
respectively. The highest grain yield (11.39 t∙ha
−1) and (10.82 t∙ha
−1) was obtained at
interaction of 65x25 cm spacing in BH-661 and BH-540, respectively while the lowest
grain yield (5.71 t∙ha
−1) was obtained from 85×35 cm spacing in BH-540. The result of
economic analysis showed that the maximum net benefit (ETB 90408.75 ha
-1) was obtained
at spacing of 65x25 cm in BH-661. Therefore, based on economic analysis it can be
conclude that optimum inter and intra row spacing (65x25 cm) combinations is promising
for BH-661 hybrid maize variety production in main season of North Mecha district and
similar agro ecologies. For better confirmation of the result, this one year experiment
needs to be repeated at multi-locations and in dif erent seasons. Keywords: BH-540, BH-661, Inter-row spacing, Intra-row spacing, Plant Density, Yield