Economic and energy efficiency of technologies for growing maize hybrids depending on the type and methods of applying fertilisers

Abstract

The urgency of solving the problem of the growth of maize grain production is unconditional, considering the needs of humanity, the economic, and energy efficiency of cultivation technologies, which substantially depends on the types of fertilisers and the frequency of their application. The purpose of this study was to prove the efficiency of maize grain production by perfecting the fertilisation system. Field research was conducted at the “Bohatyrivske” farm in the Romen district of the Sumy Oblast during 2019-2021 on dark grey podsolised soil. Mathematical and statistical processing was performed using the software package SAS 9.4 and “Agrostat 6”. The economic and energy evaluation of technologies was performed using the calculation method. Hybrids are flexible to growing conditions, respond positively to nutrition optimisation – yield varies from 6.07-6.16 in the control to 8.26-8.50 t/ha with carbomidoammonium nitrate 32 on the background of N22Р57К57. With the background application of N22Р57К57, the yield increased by 16.4%. Nitrogen fertilisers over the background provided an added increase in yield by 7.95-18.6%. With the introduction of carbomidoammonium nitrate 32, the yield increase was 2.19 t/ha and 2.44 t/ha or 36.1% and 38.0%, respectively, of the Concord and Asteroid hybrids. The reaction of hybrids to ammonia water and urea is lower compared to carbomidoammonium nitrate. Production costs for growing maize amounted to UAH 20.3-32.3 thous./ha. The introduction of carbomidoammonium nitrate against the background of N22Р57K57 provided a high conditionally net profit – UAH 19.2-19.9 thous./ha. The profitability of maize grain production is quite high – 44-80%. With the addition of Humilin Stimul, the yield increases by 0.23-1.71 t/ha, depending on the combination of fertilisers. With all types of fertilisers, the highest efficiency was obtained with one-time feeding on BBCH 15-17. The coefficient of energy efficiency for the application of fertilisers decreases. The results of this study are important for production and further areas of research, namely the biodiversity of soil microflora

Keywords

• grain market
• yield
• production costs
• conditional net profit
• profitability