Cereal crops are the major contributors for the global food security and serves as a staple food crop for majority of the world population. Among the cereals, maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most versatile and important cereal crops cultivated under various agro climatic conditions. There are various factors limiting the maize productivity in India. Among they agronomic practices like nutrient management and proper plant stand is one of the major factors effecting crop growth and productivity. Under these circumstances, the Nutrient Expert for maize serves as an efficient decision-support system for field-specific nutrient
management in maize. Plant density is a critical cultural practice that significantly influences the growth and performance of maize. In light of this, a field study was carried out at the Post Graduate Research Farm of Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India. (18.8° N latitude, 84.8° E longitude) during the Rabi season of 2022-23. The experiment was conducted by adopting a split-plot design and it comprised three main plot treatments with different levels of plant population (S1: 66,666
plants ha-1; S2: 83,333 plants ha-1; S3: 11,1111 plants ha-1) and four subplot treatments with various nutrient management treatments (N1: 100 % RDF; N2: Nutrient Expert-based recommendation (NE) for a target yield of 6 t ha-1; N3: NE for a target yield of 8 t ha-1; N4: NE for a target yield of 10 t ha-1). The analysed data of the study revealed that, the highest plant height, dry matter accumulation and leaf area per plant were recorded in 1,11,111 plants ha-1; However, the maximum stem girth was recorded with 66,666 plants ha-1. Among the yield attributing characters, significantly higher number of cobs plant-1, number of grains cob-1,
weight of the cob, length of the cob, girth of the cob, grains rows cob-1 and grains row-1 were registered with 66,666 plants ha-1. The highest grain yield (6362 kg ha-1), stover yield (9789 kg ha-1) and biological yield (15563 kg ha-1) were noted with 1,11,111 plants ha-1 and it remained significantly superior to the remaining plant stands. Moreover, in case of nutrient management, the NE-based nutrient management for a target yield of 10 t ha-1 recorded the highest values in terms of growth attributes, yield attributes,
and yield of maize. The experiment concluded that nutrient management through NE-based nutrient recommendations for a target yield of 10 t ha-1 with a spacing of 60 cm × 15 cm can be considered the most suitable plant stand for obtaining better growth, yield attributes and yield of maize under North Eastern Ghat Region of Odisha, India.