Effectiveness application of fertilizer on maize: The case study of maize farmers in West Pasaman Regency

¹ Tamansiswa University, Agrotechnology Department, Padang, Indonesia
² Tamansiswa University, Agribusiness Department, Padang, Indonesia
³ Tamansiswa University, Mathematics Education Department, Agriculture Faculty, Padang, Indonesia
⁴ Horticulture and Livestock of West Pasaman Regency, Department of Food Crops, Padang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: jamilah@unitas-pdg.ac.id

Abstract

West Pasaman is one of the regencies in West Sumatera which is the center of maize. The aimed was to determine the income and habits of maize farmers using fertilizers, as well as the role of fertilizers and soil amendments in increasing the growth of maize crops. This research was carried out in 2 experimental stages, the first stage was farmer interviews and the second stage was a trial of fertilizer types in the field carried out in a factorial form, on various types of macro and micro fertilizers for Pioneer 32’s maize, including; Rock Phosphate (RP) (28% P2O5); Urea (46% N), Zeolite as a soil amendment and micro-fertilizers are derived from Unitas Super's Liquid Fertilizer. The comparison treatment plots, namely; 300 kg ha-1 NITROPHOSKA and 200 kg ha-1 Zeolite + 300 kg ha-1 NITROPHOSKA. The results of this comparison treatment were presented in a bar chart. The data were statistically analyzed using the F test with a significance level of 5% and further tested using an LSD level of 5%. The concluded that 50% of farmers already have incomes exceeding the Regional Minimum Wage. There were about 39% of them applied fertilizers of 300 to 450 kg ha-1, 87.5% applied a combination of Urea+ PHOSKA, 12.5% PHOSKA only, and 12.5% of farmers added SP36, for cultivation in maize. As a result of field experiments, it was determined that the most appropriate application was 50 kg ha-1 urea + 50 kg ha-1 Zeolite + 200 kg ha-1 RP fertilizer and 100 ml L-1 liquid fertilizer.