Phenology is the qualitative and quantitative description of a plant’s life cycle from seed to seed.

2. ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE AND
PHENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF
MAIZE (Zea mays L.)
Malik Ghulam Asghar
Department of Agronomy
Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan

3. INTRODUCTION

4. Introduction
Scientific name : Zea mays L.
Family : Poaceae (Gramineae)
Zea is an ancient Greek word which means “sustaining life”
Mays is a word from Taino language meaning “life giver”
(Kumar & Jhariya, 2013)

5. Introduction
Chemical composition of maize kernel
Moisture contents 12.2%
Carbohydrate 75.9%
Ash (Minerals) 1.2%
Protein 5.8%
Crude fibre 0.8%
Ether 4.1%
(Shah, et al., 2015; Cortez et al., 1972)

6. Maize status in Pakistan
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Wheat Rice Cotton Sugarcane Maize
Area(000ha)
Crops
Cultivated area of Pakistan
(GOP, 2018)

7. Maize status in World
5702
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100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
Production(000Tonnes)
Countries
Maize production in world
(USDA, 2018; Anon, 2018)

8. Maize status in World
4640
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Yield(kgha-1)
Countries
Maize yield in world (kg ha-1)
(USDA, 2018; Anon, 2018)

9. Economic Importance
Maize is a good source of:
• Carbohydrates
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Dietary fiber (Rouf, et al., 2016)
Maize is cultivated for fodder and grain purposes.

10. Economic Importance
Maize fodder
Green plants are chopped and feed to animals as fresh or silage.
(Indriani, et al., 2015)

11. Economic Importance
Maize grain
1. Corn syrup (cosmetics, edible products)
2. Corn starch (thickener, bio-degradable plastic)
3. Corn oil (used in cooking, margarine)
4. Glue (used in industries)
5. Ethanol (used as solvent in varnish and paints)
(Gwirtz, et al., 2014)

12. Phenology
“Phenology is the qualitative and quantitative description of
a plant’s life cycle from seed to seed.”

13. Qualitative description
Development
▪ It includes division of plant life
cycle into distinct stages, such
as,
–Emergence
–Seedling development
–Tasseling
–Silking
–Maturity
Quantitative description
Growth
▪ It includes rate of dry matter
accumulation, it can be
assessed by:
–LAI
–LAD
–TDM
–CGR
–NAR
Phenology
Phenology of plant can be described in two aspects.

14. MATERIALS AND METHODS

15. To study phenological development and growth analysis of
maize (Zea mays L.) an experiment was conducted at
Research area of Department of Agronomy, Faculty of
Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya
University Multan.
Materials and Methods

16. Field Preparation
Field was ploughed three times with cultivator followed by
planking.
Materials and Methods

17. Field Preparation
Materials and Methods

18. Field Preparation
Materials and Methods

19. Field Preparation
Materials and Methods

20. Sowing
P X P = 9.0 inches 0.75 feet 22.5 cm
R X R = 30 inches 2.50 feet 75.0 cm
Materials and Methods

21. Development parameters (Qualitative)
Observation of following phenological stages according to
calendar days:
1) Emergence
2) Tasseling
3) Silking
4) Maturity
Parameters studied

22. Growth Parameters (Quantitative)
1) Leaf area index (LAI)
2) Leaf area duration (days)
3) Total dry matter (g m-2)
4) Crop growth rate (g m-2 day-1)
5) Net assimilation rate (g m-2 day-1)
Parameters studied

23. Allometric Parameters
1) Plant height (cm)
2) Root length (cm)
3) Number of leaves
4) Shoot fresh weight (g)
5) Shoot dry weight (g)
6) Root fresh weight (g)
7) Root dry weight (g)
Parameters studied

24. Leaf area index (LAI)
▪ Leaf area was measured manually with interval of 15
days.
▪ One plant was harvested, all leaf were removed from
plant.
▪ Weight of one leaf was taken, then its length was
recorded, width was taken from top, mid and bottom then
averaged.
Leaf area = Length ✕ mean width (cm2)
Leaf area index was calculated by the following formula:
Leaf area index =
Leaf area
Land area
Procedure to record parameters
(Hunt, 1978)

25. Leaf area duration (days)
Leaf area was calculated by the formula given below:
LAD =
LAI1 + LAI2
2
✕ (T2 – T1)
where,
LAI1 = leaf area index at T1
LAI2 = leaf area index at T2
T1 = time of first observation
T2 = time of second observation
Procedure to record parameters
(Hunt, 1978)

26. Crop growth rate (g m-2 day-1)
Crop growth rate is dry weight accumulated per unit land
area per unit time.
CGR =
W2 − W1
T2 − T1
(g m-2 day-1)
where,
W2 = total dry weight at T2
W1 = total dry weight at T1
T1 = time of first observation
T2 = time of second observation
Procedure to record parameters
(Hunt, 1978)

27. Net assimilation rate (g m-2 day-1)
Net assimilation rate was determined by the formula given
below:
NAR =
TDM
LAD
(g m-2 day-1)
where,
TDM = total dry matter
LAD = leaf area duration
Procedure to record parameters
(Hunt, 1978)

28. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

29. Phenological description
Germination
▪ Maize seeds are monocotyledons.
▪ Mode of germination was hypogeal.

30. Phenological description
Leaf structure and orientation
▪ Maize leaves are long with parallel leaf venation.
▪ Number of leaves vary from 8 to 20.

31. Phenological description

32. Phenological description
Root system
▪ Maize has profusely branched, fine root system.
▪ Root can go deeper up to 1.5 meters.

33. Phenological description
Emergence phase
▪ Emergence of maize completed in 7 DAS.

34. Phenological description
Vegetative development phase
▪ 3rd leaf stage 15 DAS
▪ 6th leaf stage 28 DAS
▪ 8th leaf stage 39 DAS

35. Phenological description
Tasseling
Tassel is male inflorescence, present on top of plant.
Tassel emerged 62 – 67 DAS.

36. Phenological description
Silking
Ear is female inflorescence, present in between of leaves.
Silking occurred 65 – 72 DAS.

37. Phenological description
Milking phase
It occurred 90 DAS.
Dough phase
It occurred 100 DAS.
Dent phase
It occurred 110 DAS.

38. Results and discussion
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15 30 45 60 75 90 105
Plantheight(cm)
Days after sowing (DAS)
Plant height of maize (cm)

39. Results and discussion
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2
4
6
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Leafcount
Days after sowing (DAS)
Leaf score of maize (cm)

40. Results and discussion
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gm-2
Days after sowing (DAS)
Shoot FW and DW of maize (g m-2)
Shoot FW Shoot DW

41. Results and discussion
0
1
2
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6
15 30 45 60 75 90 105
LAI
Days after sowing (DAS)
Leaf area index of maize (LAI)

42. Results and discussion
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
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80
15-30 30-45 45-60 60-75 75-90 90-105
LAD(days)
Days after sowing (DAS)
Leaf area duration of maize (days)

43. Results and discussion
0
2
4
6
8
10
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15-30 30-45 45-60 60-75 75-90 90-105
CGR(gm-2day-1)
Days after sowing (DAS)
Crop growth rate of maize (g m-2 day-1)

44. Results and discussion
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
15-30 30-45 45-60 60-75 75-90 90-105
NAR(gm-2day-1)
Days after sowing (DAS)
Net assimilation rate of maize (g m-2 day-1)

45. Dry sample of maize stem Dry sample of maize leaves
Results and discussion

46. References
Anonymous, 2018. www.indexmundi.com [Accessed: 10 July, 2018]
CortÚz, A., Wild-Altamirano, CB, Braham, JE and BÚhar, M.,
1972. Contribution to the technology of corn flour. Nutritional
improvement of corn . Institute of Nutrition of Centro AmÚrica y
Panamá, Guatemala (Guatemala) AID, Washington (USA)
GOP, 2018. Economic survey of Pakistan. Economic Advisor’s Wing,
Finance Division, Islamabad.
Gwirtz, J.A. and Garcia‐Casal, M.N., 2014. Processing maize flour and corn
meal food products. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 1312(1), pp.66-75.
Han, J.J., Jackson, D. and Martienssen, R., 2012. Pod corn is caused by
rearrangement at the Tunicate1 locus. The Plant Cell, pp.tpc-112.
Hunt, R., 1978. Growth analysis of individual plants. Plant Growth Analysis.
Indriani, N. P.; Yuwariah, Y.; Rochana, A.; Djuned, H., 2015. Effect of
intercropping between corn (Zea mays) and peanut (Arachis
hypogaea) with arbuscular mycorrhizal (amf) on the yield and
forage mineral content. Pak. J. Nutr., 14 (6): 362-365

47. References
Kumar, D. and Jhariya, A.N., 2013. Nutritional, medicinal and economical
importance of corn: A mini review. Research Journal of
Pharmaceutical Sciences ISSN, 2319 (2), pp. 7-8.
Linda Campbell Franklin, "Corn," in Andrew F. Smith (ed.), The
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. 2nd ed. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013 (pp. 551–558), p. 553.
Rouf Shah, T., Prasad, K. and Kumar, P., 2016. Maize—A potential source
of human nutrition and health: A review. Cogent Food &
Agriculture, 2(1), p.1166995.
Shah, T.R., Prasad, K. and Kumar, P., 2015. Studies on physicochemical
and functional characteristics of asparagus bean flour and maize
flour. In Conceptual frame work & innovations in agroecology and
food sciences (pp. 103-105). New Delhi: Krishi Sanskriti
Publications. [Accessed: 10 July, 2018]
USDA, F., 2018. World agricultural production. United States Department of
Agriculture. [Accessed: 10 July, 2018]

48. Thank you !
Any Question ..?