Mayank Goyal, Jagdish Choudhary, Ramawtar, Ravikant Sharma, Devendra Jain, Ramhari Meena and Harish Sumeriya
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2024 and 2025 at the Instructional Farm, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur, Rajasthan, to investigate the influence of different tillage and land configuration practices on the growth and protein content of maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design comprising seven tillage and land configuration treatments, namely L1: Conventional tillage-flat bed, L2: Conventional tillage-flatbed fb earthing up for ridge-furrow, L3: Conventional tillage-ridge planting, L4: Minimum tillage-flat bed, L5: Zero tillage-flat bed, L6: Permanent raised bed and L7: Farmerâs practice. The findings revealed that tillage and land configuration practices significantly influenced the growth performance of maize. Among the treatments, L2 proved to be the most effective, recording the highest leaf area index (LAI) throughout the crop growth period. The same treatment also registered the maximum crop growth rate (CGR) and net assimilation rate (NAR) during 25-50 DAS and 50-75 DAS, indicating superior crop vigour and enhanced photosynthetic efficiency. However, differences in CGR and NAR during 75 DAS to harvest were non-significant. Grain protein content was significantly influenced by the treatments, with the highest pooled protein content (10.57%) recorded under L2, which remained statistically at par with L4 (10.55%). In contrast, L7 (Farmerâs practice) consistently recorded the lowest values for most of the growth parameters and grain protein content. Overall, the results indicate that conventional tillage-flatbed fb earthing up for ridge-furrow (L2) provides a favourable soil environment for improving crop growth and enhancing grain protein content in maize.