Influence of Crop Establishment Methods and Weeding Regimes on Yield and Some Yield Components of Fonio (Digitaria exilis Kippis Stapf) at Badeggi, Nigeria

An experiment on the influence of crop establishment methods and weeding regimes on the yield and yield components of fonio (D. exilis) was carried out during the cropping season of 2017 and 2018 at the research field of the National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi (Lat. 9 o 45 1 N and Long 6 o 97 1 E). The treatments consisted of two crop establishment methods (broadcasting and drilling at 30cm inter-row spacing and four weeding regimes (weeding once (w1), weeding twice (W2), weeding thrice (W3) and a weedy check (wo). A split-plot design was used such that crop establishment methods were allocated to the main plots and weeding regimes were assigned to the sub-plots. The experiment was replicated four times. The land was prepared manually but ensured to be leveled properly. The plot size was 3.0m x 4.0m leaving a distance of 1.0m between replications and 0.5m between plots as alleyways. Fonio (Vakahal (Local) accession was used. Fertilizer (NPK 15:15:15) was used to supply 30kg N ha -1 , 30kg P2O5gha -1 and 30kg K20 ha -1 basal. Weed management was by manual hand pulling of weeds 4 weeks after sowing (WAS). Data taken include number of tillers, plant height, length of spikes and grain yield respectively. Results showed that drilling method of sowing produced more tillers, taller plants and higher grain yield in both years compared to broadcasting method. Crop establishment methods had no significant influence on length of spikes in both years of experimentation. Among the weeding regime treatments, weeding thrice had significantly higher tillers, plant height and grain yield over the other treatments in both years. From this study, the best method of sowing fonio (D. exilis) is by drilling and weeding thrice.