Effect of Blended NPS Fertilizer on Food Barley Varieties in Gurawa District, Ethiopia

Kasim Ahmed; Debela Bekele

doi:10.36648/2249-7412/22.12.5.223

Abstract

Effect of Blended NPS Fertilizer on Food Barley Varieties in Gurawa District, Ethiopia

Food barley is one of the major staple crops in Ethiopia. In Gurawa district, the productivity of food barley is low due to poor agronomic practice. Most of the farmers in these areas do not use fertilizer and few others use very much below the optimum rate and inappropriate NPS fertilizer applications rate are among the most important agronomic factors that hinders productivity of food barley around the study area. An experiment was conducted in the Gurawa district in 2020 main cropping season to examine the responses of different NPS fertilizer rates on yield and yield components of food barley. Five different NPS fertilizer rates (0,50,100,150 and 200 kgha^-1) and three barley varieties (EH1493,BH1307 and Cross#41/98) a total of 15 treatment combinations were laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Phonological, growth, yield and yield related data were collected and analyzed using genstat software. The results of this study indicated that the main effect of different varieties and application of different NPS fertilizer rates showed highly significant effect on yield and yield components of food barley. However, the interaction effects of varieties and NPS rates did not significantly affect grain yield and yield components of food barley. The application of 200 kgha^-1 NPS fertilizer rate was gave the highest grain yield (4592 kgha^-1) compared with the other rates of NPS fertilizer application. The results of the partial budget analysis indicated that the application of 200 kgha^-1 of NPS fertilizer rate resulted in maximum marginal rate of return (1042.47%) and are economically profitable with a net benefit of 134798 birr ha^-1 compared to other treatments. Thus it can be concluded that application of 200 kg NPS ha^-1 was found to be profitable both agronomical and economical and can be recommended around the Gurawa area.