Optimizing Seeding Rates and Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizer Rate for High Yield and Quality of Food Oats in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

Food oats, one of the cereal crops meant both for grain and for feed, is an important crop in marginal ecologies. It can grow on a wide range of soil  types and can perform better than other small-grain cereals on acid soils. However, no sufficient agronomic research recommendations are  available to improve its productivity. Hence, an experiment was conducted in 2019 and 2020 cropping seasons to determine the optimum seed and  fertilizer rate for higher yield and quality of food oats. Factorial combinations of seed rate (100, 125, and 150 kg/ha), nitrogen fertilizer (21, 42, and  63 kg/ha), and phosphate fertilizer (23, 46, and 69 kg P₂O₅/ha) were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Most of  the interactions and the main effect of P₂O₅ fertilizer were non-significant for grain yield and hectoliter weight. The main effects of year, location,  and seed rate showed a significant effect on both grain yield, and hectoliter weight, while nitrogen showed a significant effect only on grain yield.  Grain yield linearly increased as the main effects of seed and nitrogen rate increased from the lowest to the highest level. All parameters were  positively and highly significantly (P<0.01) correlated with or contributed to grain yield (except hectoliter weight). In general, a phosphorus fertilizer  at the rate of 23 kg P₂O₅/ha together with a seed rate of 150 kg/ha and a nitrogen rate of 63 kg/ha was found to be optimum for food oat  production on nitisols/red soils of the West and North Shewa zones.