Effectiveness application of fertilizer on maize: The case study of maize farmers in West Pasaman Regency

West Pasaman is one of the regencies in West Sumatera which
is the center of maize. The aimed was to determine the income and habits of
maize farmers using fertilizers, as well as the role of fertilizers and soil
amendments in increasing the growth of maize crops. This research was
carried out in 2 experimental stages, the first stage was farmer interviews
and the second stage was a trial of fertilizer types in the field carried out in
a factorial form, on various types of macro and micro fertilizers for Pioneer
32’s maize, including; Rock Phosphate (RP) (28% P2O5); Urea (46% N),
Zeolite as a soil amendment and micro-fertilizers are derived from Unitas
Super's Liquid Fertilizer. The comparison treatment plots, namely; 300 kg
ha-1 NITROPHOSKA and 200 kg ha-1 Zeolite + 300 kg ha-1
NITROPHOSKA. The results of this comparison treatment were presented
in a bar chart. The data were statistically analyzed using the F test with a
significance level of 5% and further tested using an LSD level of 5%. The
concluded that 50% of farmers already have incomes exceeding the
Regional Minimum Wage. There were about 39% of them applied fertilizers
of 300 to 450 kg ha-1, 87.5% applied a combination of Urea+ PHOSKA,
12.5% PHOSKA only, and 12.5% of farmers added SP36, for cultivation
in maize. As a result of field experiments, it was determined that the most
appropriate application was 50 kg ha-1 urea + 50 kg ha-1 Zeolite + 200 kg
ha-1 RP fertilizer and 100 ml L-1 liquid fertilizer