Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world, a common

feature that under developed country face is more population involved in

agriculture but with less productivity. Banke lies in mid western terai of
Nepal and maize is one of the major crops of Banke [ CITATION Min17 \l 1033 ].
There are many factors causing decline in productivity of maize. Weed
infestation is the one of the major problems of reduction in productivity
of maize production in terai area of Nepal .Prime Minister agriculture
project (Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project) has
established a maize seed zone in Duduwa rural municipal ward no.
1,2,3,4 and 6 and Nepalgunj sub metropolitan ward no 12,14,15,16 with
aim to improve production and quality of seeds. PMAMP have aided in
providing seed at 75% subsidy and help in farm mechanization [CITATION
Min17 \n \l 1033 ]. Farmers can now buy seed at low cost rate and have
adopted small farm machinery like using power tillers in some parts of
Banke. However, the issues of the weed management techniques need to
be addressed. Due to inadequate knowledge about effective weed
management technique yield of maize is poor. Also people prefer Indian
hybrid variety over Nepali variety climatic and soil unsuitability, lack of
irrigation facility is main problem for spring maize cultivation.
The productivity of maize is still very low and the current figure is only
2.09 t/ha (MOAC, 2006/07). There is wide gap between the potential
experimental yield (5 t/ha) of open pollinated varieties and the actual
yield under farmer’s situation (2.03 t/ha). The causes of yield gap
include low use of production inputs and lack of adoption of modern
production technologies (Kaini, 2004). Low use of nutrient or chemical
fertilizer (Katuwal and Barakoti, 2001) and poor weed management
(Mishra, 2004) are recognized as major problems of low productivity of
maize in Nepal.
Lack of proper management of nutrient leads the poor yield of maize.
In recent years, the increased use of high yielding crop varieties in
intensive cropping systems has lead to a substantially increased
demand for nutrients. Nutrients supplied by FYM/compost may not be
sufficient to exploit the genetic potential of improved varieties (Subedi
and Sapkota, 2002). The high cost of inorganic fertilizer dramatically
limits its use by farmers (Balko and russel, 1980). Nitrogen is one of the
costliest and perhaps the most crucial nutrients limiting crop yields and
is a burning problem of most of the maize growing areas of Nepal. Not
only use of fertilizer is very low in Nepal but the fertilizers are also used
in imbalance way. In addition to economic losses, N overapplication
results in environmental pollution through nitrate contamination (Gehl
et al., 2005).In such a situation, optimum application of N fertilizer is
necessary to meet the N requirement of maize to achieve optimum
productivity. At the same time, the recovery of applied nutrient in
maize is very less due to various losses among them weeds is the major
one. Due to rainy season and widely spaced crop it is infested with the
variety of weeds and subjected to vigorous competition due to
favorable environmental condition for their growth (Mishra, 2004),
which often inflicts huge losses ranging from 28-100% (Angiras and
Singh, 1989). Weeds through competition with crop deprive crops of
limited essential resources prominent amongst which are nutrients. The
extent of nutrient loss varies from 30-40% of the applied nutrient
(Mundra et al., 2002). Nitrogen is the first nutrient to become limiting
in most instances of weed-crop competition (Zimdahl, 1993). Thus,
nutrient drain by weeds assumes added significance in the present
context of fertilizer crisis.
Maize is cultivated throughout the year and is popular cereal in Dang.
Certain cultural practices can be imposed or modified to increase yield
of maize such as the use of improved hybrid varieties, irrigation and
higher plant populations.Even though, there are high potential uses and
export demand, the productivity of maize in farmers field is low
(2.45 ton ha-1) as compared to the national average productivity of
5.7 ton ha-1in Nepal (MOAD, 2014; KC et al., 2015). Farmers of Dang
do not have scientific knowledge about the optimum plant spacing and
plant density. This has led to use of high number of seed resulting in low
germination and low yield.Proper method of sowing is among the
important biotic factors that determine the proper plant population,
which improves the performance and productivity of plants in the field.

Plant population plays an important role, as it is one of the most

important yield contributing characters. According to Pepó and Sárvári
(2013), maize is a plant with individual productivity; therefore, plant
density determines yield significantly. Optimal plant density can be
affected by the genetic properties and vegetation time of the given
hybrid, just as by the conditions of the production area, by the crop year
and the extent of water and nutrient supply. Sárvári et al. (2005) found
that different hybrids endure production using higher plant densities in
different extent. Plant density is a production factor that affects yield to
the greatest extent. Parallel to the increasing plant density the individual
production of plants decreases but the yield per unit area increases,
however to a certain limit.Therefore, the present study was conducted to
investigate the suitable variety and optimum spacing of maize for
maximum yield and yield components.
Despite the great potential of maize farming, production is low and
substantial amount of maize is imported every year. The farm level yield
of maize (2.45 t/ha) is not satisfactory as compared to attainable yield
(5.7 t/ha) in Nepal (MOAD, 2014; KC et al., 2015). Information
regarding optimum plant density during spring season with recently
introduced hybrids are lacking in Nepal particularly in Maize Super
Zone of Dang valley.

The fall armyworms (FAW), voracious caterpillars can travel around the

globe, frightening farmers. This invasive agricultural pest is native to
America, but has already travelled to Africa and Asia. Reports show that
the pest has caused crop losses of $13.3 billion in Africa alone where it
was first detected there (in Nigeria) in January 2016[CITATION Goe16 \t \l

1033 ]. Plant Quarantine and Pest Management Center and National Plant
Protection Association on a meeting announced the entry of fall
armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) in Nepal on May 9, 2019. Pest
sample was also sent to Agriculture Research Council in Bangalore for
needful investigation. Lab reports of two samples stated that the pest is
not fall armyworm. However, lab report of the third sample confirmed
the pest as fall armyworm. Plant Quarantine and Pesticide management
Center and other teams visited various farms of Kavre, Sindhupalchowk,
Nawalpur and Chitwan and collected samples of the pest. The samples
also were sent to Bangalore for lab. The report, which came on August
9, 2019 confirmed that the samples were of American fall armyworm.
A number of characteristics make them particularly hard to control. This
includes the fact that the moths are strong flyers, breed at an
astonishingly high rate and their larvae can feed on a wide range of host
plants.

Maize is a nutrient exhaustive crop and requires more fertilization

to obtain the maximum productivity. Urea is a major nutrient
required by maize. Usually 50% of urea is applied at basal dose
and remaining are top dressed. The nitrogen fertilizer applied in
soil is usually lost as ammonia or nitrous oxide or leached or run
off in the form of nitrate. It was found that in maize, 11-48% of
applied nitrogen was lost due to ammonia volatilization [CITATION
Cai02 \l 1033 ] . Similarly, through the maize root zone 29.5 kg N per

ha is leached out as nitrate for 100kgN per ha applied[ CITATION

Ade94 \l 1033 ]. This scenario shows that most of the nitrogen applied

are lost in environment and plant absorbs a little amount. The

amount of nutrient absorbed by the plant does not meet the
plant’s nutrient demand. Due to this there is decrease in the net
productivity of crop and increase in cost of production. The lost
nitrogen further causes environmental degradation such as
increase in greenhouse gases, underground water pollution, acid
rain ,etc. These effects again cause the poor crop performance in
next season.