Physiological and productive responses of maize submitted to irrigation depths at different seasons of cultivation
International Journal of Development Research
Physiological and productive responses of maize submitted to irrigation depths at different seasons of cultivation
Received 14th September, 2019; Received in revised form 06th October, 2019; Accepted 03rd November, 2019; Published online 31th December, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Samuel Silva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The use of agricultural techniques such as irrigation promotes physiological responses capable of significantly altering the growth, development and yield of maize, but water should be used in the appropriate amount for cultivation. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate physiological and productive responses of maize submitted to water levels. The experiment was conducted in two seasons (rainy and dry season) in Rio Largo, Alagoas, Brazil, with five treatments corresponding to five irrigation levels (40, 80, 120, 160 and 200% of crop evapotranspiration - ETc) and four replications. The physiological rates, chlorophyll and dry matter, as well as grain yield, were evaluated. As a result, it was observed in the rainy season the maize has lower water requirement and lower grain yield than in the dry season. In the latter period there is greater significance in the physiological responses of the plant to treatments such as greater stomatal condutance and greater transpiration, allied to higher photosynthetic rates. Maize grain yield is only guaranteed by rainfall in the rainy season. In the dry season, the maximum yield can be obtained with irrigation level equivalent to 147% of ETc.
