Influence of Moisture and Pests Stresses on Corn Yield

As increasing of disaster such as drought and pest invasion in recent decades, it is essential to find out practical approaches in optimizing water use and water management for reduce the adverse effects of this disaster in agriculture. In order to study the effects of water stress and pest stress on corn yield, an experiment was conducted in the research farm of Isfahan University of Technology. In sprayed and non sprayed of the field, a factorial design, based on the completely randomized block, was carried out with three treatments of irrigation regimes including intensive stress (50% water requirement), moderate stress (75% water requirement) and no water stress in four stages of corn growth from seed germination until tasseling, from tasseling until milky, from milky until harvest and the whole period of corn growth, in four replications for one year (2005). The results showed that applying water stress on corn reduced seed yield between 6-62% and also decreased other agronomic characters except protein percentage. Water stress in non sprayed condition, reduced significantly more physiological characteristics of corn compared to the sprayed condition. Intensive water stress and pests stresses increasd 3 and 13% of percentage protein, respectively. In sprayed condition applying moderate stress in first stages of corn until the first of third stage is suggested in drought condition.