Effect of spacing and nitrogen levels

Among the various agronomic factors, proper row spacing and nitrogen are of prime important for enhancing fodder yield of better quality. Plant spacing is one of the important factors that determine the efficient use of land, light, water and nutrients. Among different nutrients, nitrogen is the most commonly deficient nutrient in the soil and gives considerable response in forage maize. Nitrogen is an essential element for both fodder quantity and quality as it is a component of protein and chlorophyll.Maize can be grown to produce fodder in rabi season to solve the problem of livestock feed shortage during this period. In Saurashtra, most of the small and marginal farmers' keep one or two milch cows or buffaloes for selling milk. To provide good quality green and dry fodder for the milch animals round the year, it is become inevitable to find out suitable row spacing and proper nitrogen dose for rabi fodder maize under Saurashtra region. Precise information regarding appropriate spacing and nitrogen dose for fodder maize is very limited.