Economic efficiency of maize grain production under various agrotechnical measures of cultivation

Topicality. The efficiency of the grain production industry allows to provide the population with food and the state with currency. A significant place in the increase in the volume of grain crops is assigned to maize, which is in stable demand both in the domestic and foreign markets. Issues. Due to the lack of programs of grain maize breeding in the Western Forest-Steppe zone, it is necessary to purchase the hybrids and seed material in the originating institutions of the Central Forest-Steppe and Steppe zones. The choice of high-yield hybrids depends on their biological char-acteristics, effective use of soil and climatic conditions and positive response to the cultivation technology. Aim. To conduct a comprehensive and economic evaluation of maize hybrids depend-ing on the implementation of their genetic potential in the soil and climatic conditions of the West-ern Forest-Steppe and their response to the system of basic and foliar plant nutrition. Materials and methods. The studies were carried out during 2019–2021 on the fields of the Department of Seed Production and Seed Science at the Institute of Agriculture in the Carpathian region NAAS. We studied next maize hybrids: Pochaivskyi 190 MV, DN Meotyda, DN Khortytsia, Orzhytsia 237 MV (the originator – State Enterprise Institute of Grain Crops of NAAS, Dnipro). Yield accounting was carried out by direct combining of experimental plots with subsequent weighing, and the obtained data was recalculated for standard grain moisture content. Processing statistical data - by analysis of variance (Excel, Statistica 6.0) according to V. A. Ushkarenko, R. A. Vozhehova, S. P. Golobo-rodko, S. V. Kokovikhin (2013), economic assessment – by the method of V. I. Boiko, E. M. Lebid, V. S. Rybka (2008). Results. The highest grain yield of maize hybrids (7.49 t/ha for early-ripening group and 7.62 t/ha for mid-early group) was obtained in 2019; in 2020, the grain yield was lowest – 7.07 and 7.22 t/ha, respectively. The highest yield of 7.68 t/ha was obtained for DN Meotyda hy-brid of the early ripening group, and 7.67 t/ha – for Orzhytsia 237 MV hybrid of the mid-early rip-ening group. Over the years of research, the variability of grain yield for the early ripening hybrids (FAO 100–199) ranged within 0.32–0.52 t/ha, for the mid-early ripening hybrids (FAO 200–299) – 0.22–0.35 t/ha. Pre-sowing seed treatment with chelated forms of microfertilizers was effective on gray forest surface-gley soils of the studied region with hard-to-reach forms of nutrients. Microferti-lizers used in pre-sowing seed treatment increased grain yield by 0.21–0.43 t/ha. Conclusions. The growth of economic indicators for farms of various forms of ownership in the Western Forest-Steppe zone is facilitated by the expansion of the range of simple linear maize hybrids of domestic selection. When growing ecologically plastic maize hybrids of different maturity groups (Pochaivskyi 190 MV, DN Meotyda, DN Khortytsia, Orzhytsia 237 MV), the profitability of grain production reached 107.2–132.1 %. Pre-sowing seed treatment with chelated microfertilizers: Ora-cle Seeds (1.0 l/t), Brexil Combi (0.5 kg/t) and Valagro EDTA Mix 5 (0.2 kg/t) increased the profit-ability by 2.7–9.2 %. When applying microfertilizer Oracle Multicomplex (1.5 l/ha) in the stage of ВВСН 16–18 (6–8 leaves) and ВВСН 59 (tasseling), the profitability indicator exceeded the control (without foliar feeding) by 37.1–38.2 %. When the rate of application of mineral fertilizers was in-creased to N150P90K90, it was obtained a higher profitability of grain production of early ripening maize hybrids (FAO 100–199) at plant density of 75 thousand pcs/ha) by 24.6–27.7 %, mid-early ripening (FAO 200–299 with plant density of 80 thousand pcs/ha) – by 17.4–20.7 % compared to N120P90K90. Key words: maize, yield, microfertilizers, mineral fertilizers, profitability.