Application of Three-Factor Factorial Experimental Design with 8 Replicates per Cell- A study of Maize Yield

Abstract

Factorial Experiments is one involving two or more factors in single experiments. Such designs are classified by the number of levels of each factors and the number of factors. Factorial experiments are efficient and provide extra information (the interactions between the factors) which cannot be obtained when using single factor design. This study examined the application of a three-factor factorial design in determine the significant difference in the mean yield of maize in Nigeria with respect to the effect of fertilizers, herbicides and water volumes. For the successful execution of this research work, primary data (yield of maize) were collected from farm land cultivated on half plot of land in the year 2016. The total ridges made were 216 which were segmented into (9), each containing 24 ridges. The 24 ridges were also segmented into 3, which makes it 8 replicates per factor level. This research work covers only three factors which are fertilizers at three levels {N:P:K(20:10:10), N:P:K(15:15:15), and UREA}, herbicides at three levels (Altraforce, Xtraforce and Metaforce) and water volumes at three levels (5litres, 7.5litres, and 10litres). The maize (Soar 1) was planted in June 2016, the herbicides (Altraforce, Xtraforce and Metaforce) were applied a day after planting, the water volumes (5Litres, 7.5Litres and 10Litres) were  applied everyday according to how the ridges were segmented irrespective of rainfall.

The fertilizers {N:P:K(20:10:10), N:P:K(15:15:15), and UREA} were applied in August and the maize were harvested in September on the farm land and weighed per ridge in kilogram (kg). Data collected was analyzed electronically using SPSS version 21. The analysis techniques employed was a 3³ replicated factorial design with 8 replicates per cell. The hypotheses tests were carried out at α (5%) significance level and the decision rule was to reject the null hypothesis (H₀) if the calculated Sig. value (p-value) is less than the α (5%). Results from the analyses revealed among others that there is significant difference in the fertilizers effect on the yield of maize with a Sig. value of 0.000 while there is no significant difference in the herbicides effect with a Sig. value of 0.505. Similarly, there is no significant difference in the water volumes effect on the yield of maize with a Sig. value of 0.866. In addition, there is significant interaction effect between "fertilizers and herbicides" (Sig. = 0.022) and between "herbicides and water volumes" (Sig. = 0.010) on the yield of maize.