Malawi Maize

Goals

Biosynergy have been working closely with Pannar of South Africa to demonstrate the effectiveness of its flagship product Crofft on many different varieties of Corn and Maize. Pannar as one of the leading seed breeders in the industry. They came up with a cross section of their varieties in order to put the product through its paces. The idea was to prove that Crofft worked across their entire range of seeds and the previous excellent results were not isolated so a few varieties of Corn or Maize.

Research Details

Varieties:                PAN 4M-21, PAN 53 and PAN 67

Plant Date:             8^th January 2014

1^st Application:      27^th January 2014

2^nd Application:     18^th February 2014

Harvested:             May 16th

Conditions:            Rain Fed

Soil:                       Sandy Loam with low organic matter

Area:                     Lilongwe

Country:                Malawi

Trial type:             Randomised and stratified trial.

Testing

Varieties tested are PAN 4M-21, PAN 53 and PAN 67 all other exhibited what is now being recognised as “the Crofft effect” greener foliage due to increased chlorophyll content, stronger root systems, increased cob size, increased cob count, field mass and ultimately yield.

Biosynergy Fertilisers working in conjunction with Pannar in various African countries and in 2013 collaborated on a trial held on a farm just outside of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi a republic in South Central Africa.

The trial planting was originally set for early December but the onset of the rainy season was delayed by 4 weeks and so too, as a result, was the planting. The rainy season was below average in terms of the number of millilitres received and also in terms of the duration of the period.

Results

Despite the shorter rain period and the late planting the Crofft trial produced excellent results against the control on all varieties but especially Pannar 53.

Crofft stimulated the treated plants to grow more fibrous root systems, this in turn allowed those plants to make better use of the nutrients and moisture available in the soil which produced a higher yield. The cobs of Crofft treated plants in the trial had at least one but on average two extra rows of kernels and they filled out closer to the end of the cob unlike the untreated cob (see detailed statistics below).