Abstract
Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low, mainly due to low use of inputs in agriculture, high seasonal rainfall variability and inadequate soil preparation. A study conducted in two summer crop seasons (November–March 2012/2013 and 2013/2014) examined the impact of three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage), two fertiliser levels (0 and 40% N) and two water supply regimes (rainfed and irrigated) on maize root development and grain yield on a sandy soil in a semi-arid region of Mozambique. Tillage had a major effect on soil penetration resistance, but little effect on root growth and limited effect on yield. Thus, there appears to be little need for loosening on this soil. There was also no interaction between tillage and the other experimental factors, meaning that tillage system can be chosen irrespective of fertiliser and water supply. Irrigation had the largest impact on root and shoot growth and crop yield, increasing yield in season 2 from 670 to 4780 kg ha–1.There was a very strong interaction between fertiliser and water supply, with no yield increase for fertiliser in the rainfed treatment, while combined with irrigation it increased yield by 1590 kg ha–1 in season 1 and 1840 kg ha–1 in season 2. Thus, for the conditions studied here, it was rational to add fertiliser only in combination with irrigation and not in a rainfed system.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
Tillage had a major effect on soil penetration resistance.
- Treatment
- three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage)e1
- Outcome
- soil penetration resistancee2
Zea maysNot reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e1“examined the impact of three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage), two fertiliser levels (0 and 40% N) and two water supply regimes (rainfed and irrigated)”
e2“Tillage had a major effect on soil penetration resistance, but little effect on root growth and limited effect on yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Tillage had little effect on maize root growth.
- Treatment
- three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage)e1
- Outcome
- root growthe2
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e1“examined the impact of three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage), two fertiliser levels (0 and 40% N) and two water supply regimes (rainfed and irrigated)”
e2“Tillage had a major effect on soil penetration resistance, but little effect on root growth and limited effect on yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Tillage had limited effect on maize grain yield.
- Treatment
- three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage)e1
- Outcome
- yielde2
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e1“examined the impact of three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage), two fertiliser levels (0 and 40% N) and two water supply regimes (rainfed and irrigated)”
e2“Tillage had a major effect on soil penetration resistance, but little effect on root growth and limited effect on yield”
Claim · model-written summary
There was no interaction between tillage and the other experimental factors.
- Outcome
- interaction between tillage and the other experimental factorse3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e3“There was also no interaction between tillage and the other experimental factors, meaning that tillage system can be chosen irrespective of fertiliser and water supply”
Claim · model-written summary
There appears to be little need for loosening this sandy soil for maize.
- Outcome
- little need for looseninge4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e4“Thus, there appears to be little need for loosening on this soil”
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation had the largest impact on maize root and shoot growth and crop yield compared with rainfed maize.
- Treatment
- Irrigatione5
- Outcome
- root and shoot growth and crop yielde5
- Direction
- largest impacte5
- Comparator
- rainfede1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e1“examined the impact of three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage), two fertiliser levels (0 and 40% N) and two water supply regimes (rainfed and irrigated)”
e5“Irrigation had the largest impact on root and shoot growth and crop yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation increased maize yield in season 2 from 670 to 4780 kg ha–1 compared with rainfed maize.
- Treatment
- Irrigatione5
- Outcome
- yielde6
- Direction
- increasinge6
- Value
- from 670 to 4780 kg ha–1e6
- Qualifier
- season 2e6
- Comparator
- rainfede1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e1“examined the impact of three tillage methods (hand hoeing, strip tillage and conventional tillage), two fertiliser levels (0 and 40% N) and two water supply regimes (rainfed and irrigated)”
e5“Irrigation had the largest impact on root and shoot growth and crop yield”
e6“increasing yield in season 2 from 670 to 4780 kg ha–1”
Claim · model-written summary
Fertiliser gave no yield increase in the rainfed treatment.
- Treatment
- fertilisere7
- Outcome
- yield increasee7
- Direction
- no_changeinferrede7
- Comparator
- rainfed treatmente7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e7“with no yield increase for fertiliser in the rainfed treatment”
Claim · model-written summary
Fertiliser combined with irrigation increased maize yield by 1590 kg ha–1 in season 1.
- Treatment
- combined with irrigatione7
- Outcome
- yielde7
- Direction
- increasede7
- Value
- 1590 kg ha–1e7
- Qualifier
- season 1e7
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e7“while combined with irrigation it increased yield by 1590 kg ha–1 in season 1”
Claim · model-written summary
Fertiliser combined with irrigation increased maize yield by 1840 kg ha–1 in season 2.
- Treatment
- combined with irrigatione7
- Outcome
- yielde7
- Direction
- increasede7
- Value
- 1840 kg ha–1e6
- Qualifier
- season 2e6
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e7“while combined with irrigation it increased yield by 1590 kg ha–1 in season 1”
e6“1840 kg ha–1 in season 2”
Claim · model-written summary
There was a very strong interaction between fertiliser and water supply.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e5“There was a very strong interaction between fertiliser and water supply”
Claim · model-written summary
For the conditions studied, fertiliser should be added only in combination with irrigation.
- Outcome
- add fertiliser only in combination with irrigatione6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Average yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in Mozambique is low”
e6“it was rational to add fertiliser only in combination with irrigation and not in a rainfed system”
The same questions in other papers
tillage · growth · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
86 papers in the same direction as this paper · 196 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
279 papers more in this group
See all 283 papers →irrigation · yield · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
790 papers in the same direction as this paper · 209 in the opposite direction · 16 reporting no difference from an alternative
- positive
- negative
- no effect
1,012 papers more in this group
See all 1,016 papers →tillage · yield · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
286 papers in the same direction as this paper · 812 in the opposite direction
- positive
- no effect
- positive
1,095 papers more in this group
See all 1,099 papers →fertilization · yield · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
422 papers in the same direction as this paper · 3,485 reporting no difference from an alternative
- positive
- negative
- positive
3,904 papers more in this group
See all 3,908 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.