Effect of Integrated Nutrient Management on Yield and Yield Components of Food Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in Kaffa Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Declining soil fertility is one of the major problems causing yield reduction of barley in Southwestern Ethiopia. Therefore, field experiments were, carried out at Adiyo and Ghimbo districts, Kaffa Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia, to determine the effects of combined application of farm yard manure (FYM) and vermi compost (VC) with inorganic NP on growth, yield and yield components of food barley. The treatments included combinations of two rates (2.5 and 5 t ha-1) of FYM and two rates (2.5 and 5 t ha-1) of VC with 25%, 50% and 75% of recommended rates of inorganic NP, respectively. In addition, 100% recommended rate of inorganic NP (23 kg N ha-1 and 46 kg P2O5 ha-1) and zero rates were used for comparison. The experiments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results revealed that applying 5 t ha-1 FYM combined with 75% inorganic NP gave the highest number of productive tiller m-2 (227 and 215) and grain number spike-1 (37 and 36.7) and grain yield (3668 and 3486 kg ha-1) of barley at Adiyo and Ghimbo, respectively. The application of 5 t ha-1 FYM in combination with 75% inorganic NP has increased grain yield by 69.30% and 43.45% at Adiyo and by 66.86% and 45.49% at Ghimbo over the control and the application of 100% recommended rate of NP fertilizers, respectively. Similarly, the economic evaluation indicated that the application of 5 t ha-1 FYM + 75% inorganic NP gave the highest net return which is 15,858.50 Ethiopian Birr ha-1 at Adiyo and 13,108.00 Ethiopian Birr ha-1 at Ghimbo. Hence, it can be concluded that, the use of combined application of FYM (5 t ha-1) with 75% of recommended rates of inorganic NP in the study areas and other locations with similar agro-ecologies can significantly increase food barley yield and provide high economic return.

Keywords: Farm Yard Manure; Food barley; Nitrogen; Phosphorous; Vermicompost