Comparative Assessment of the Growth and Yield of Two Drought-Tolerant Maize Varieties to Cowdung and Poultry Composts as Soil Amendments

A field experiment was conducted in the early (wet) and late (dry) maize planting seasons of 2014 to assess the effect of cowdung and poultry composts application on the growth and yield of two drought tolerant maize varieties in rain forest ecology of Nigeria. Cow dung and poultry droppings were separately composted aerobically for three months. Maize varieties DT-SR-WC and DT-SYN-8W were planted 2 with seventreatments, namely; 100% cow dung (CD), 100% poultry (PLT) and 50% CD + 50% PLT; each at three and six tonnes per hectare and zero compost application that served as control. The experiment was a randomized complete block design and each plot (3.0 m x 2.5 m) was replicated three times to give a total of 21 plots per maize variety. At full maturity, maize ears were harvested, dried, manually shelled and grains were weighed. The growth and yield components of maize variety DT-SR-WC were higher thanDT-SYN-8W in the wet and dry 2 -1 seasons. Also, highest maize grain yield (2.41 t ha ) obtained with -1 equal proportion of cow dung and poultry composts at 6 t ha was only significantly (p < 0.01) different from the yields obtained with cow -1 dung compost alone at 3 t ha and the control plots in the wet season. -1 Therefore, we concluded that 3 t ha of poultry compost was the best option for enhanced and optimal maize grain yield