Land Degradation and Climate Change Resilient Soil and Crop Management Strategies for Maize Production in Coastal Western Africa

A 2-yr (four cropping seasons) trial was conducted with nine maize (Zea mays L.) varieties and four fertilization treatments in three replicates to determine the appropriate variety-fertilization combinations. Fertilization treatments were: no fertilization (T1), 6 t ha -1 of farmyard manure (FYM) (T2), the national recommendation of 200 kg N15P15K15 plus 100 kg urea (46% N) ha -1 (T3) and 3 t of FYM plus 100 kg N15P15K15 plus 50 kg urea ha -1 (T4). Across fertilization treatments, 2-yr average grain yields were highest (6.41 to 6.76 t ha -1 ) for Bassar, TZEE and Obatampa varieties and lowest (4.63 and 5.07 t ha -1 ) for Wahala3 and Agoèbli in the first cropping season. TZEE, Dapaong, Obatampa and Bassar performed better (4.0 to 4.39 t ha -1 ) during the second season. Across varieties, grain yields for T4, T3 and T2 increased by 92 to 58, 69 to 42 and 57 to 34% in comparison with T1, respectively, those under T4 and T3 were 22.6 to 18 and 8 to 6% higher than that for T2, respectively, and the yield for T4 was 11 to 13.5% superior over that for T3. Fertilization treatment T4 proved suitable for improved grain yield and five varieties were no more recommended for the second cropping season.