How to top dress your maize for higher yields

Philip Ayako a maize farmer top dresses the new maize seed variety at his farm in Kibos Kisumu county. The new variety known as Gulf 4 is resistant to striga weed. (Collins Oduor, Standard)

Kenya continues to record low maize yields of between nine to eleven bags per acre against a target yield of 30 to 40 bags in most regions. This is partially blamed on poor farming practices.

Top dressing is the application of Nitrogen in granular fertiliser form to crops to boost the nitrogen available to the plant as it is growing. Top dressing and weeding go together because the removal of unwanted competitive plants is very important so that the fertiliser granules that boost the Nitrogen, which should be placed at the base of the plant, are not taken up by the competing weeds which will limit yields during the times of high Nitrogen demand from the maize plants.