Abstract

Eliakira Kisetu and Ziada Salum Mtakimwa

 This study intended to find alternative ways of increasing phosphorus (P) in soils using Minjingu fertilizer brands since maize yield in Tanzania has been retarded by low soil fertility. Maize (Zea mays L.) var. TMV-1 was used as a test crop. The treatments used (g per 2.16 m2 plot) were: absolute control (C), Pigeon pea compost (PP) (100), M-Mazao (MM) (420), Hyper (MH) (160), MM + PP (520) and MH + PP (260). The results showed that Agronomic Efficiency (AE) varied significantly (p <0.001) among treatments. Harvest index (HI) also differed significantly (p ≤0.05). This study revealed that exclusive application of Minjingu Hyper fertilizer to maize proves to be superior to Minjingu Mazao fertilizer by having the highest harvest index (24.7%) with relatively high maize yield (2.94 t ha1 ). The former fertilizer brand compares better with the latter, which produced yield of 1.65 t ha-1 and harvest index of 6.94%. Furthermore, upon incorporation of pigeon pea compost, Minjingu Mazao fertilizer recorded the highest yield (3.85 t ha1 ). This differed slightly numerically but was statistically similar with yield obtained when compost was incorporated with Minjingu Hyper fertilizer (3.64 t ha1 ).