The Evaluation of Different Blended Fertilizers Types and Rates for Improving the Productivity of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Debub Ari District, Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Production and productivity of wheat is decreased mainly by soil fertility depletion and inappropriate rate of poor nutrients availability. Crop specific fertilizer recommendation is necessary for sustainable crop production. Accordingly, a field experiment was conducted during the main rainy season of 2018 and 2019 to evaluate blended fertilizer types and rates effect on improving production of wheat in Debub Ari district, Southern Ethiopia. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The experiment consisted of 9 treatments viz. control, (142 NPS + 42 urea) kgha -1 , (189NPS + 72Urea) kgha -1 , (142 NPS +102Urea) kgha -1 , (237NPS + 102Urea) kgha -1 , (150NPSB+ 41Urea) kgha -1 , (200 NPSB + 72Urea) kgha -1 , (250NPSB + 102Urea) kgha -1 and (150 NPSB + 161Urea) kgha -1 treatments. Full dose of blended fertilizers were applied at planting time and urea was top dressed after 35 days of planting. Application of blended fertilizer significantly (p < 0.05) increased the plant height, number of tillers per plant, spike length, number of seeds per spike, grain yield, aboveground biomass, and thousand seed weight at harvest as compared to the control. The maximum and significant grain yield (3796.7kg ha -1 ) and minimum (1466.5kg ha -1 ) were obtained from the application of 237 kg ha -1 NPS + 102kgha -1 Urea and control treatment, respectively. The application of 237 kg ha -1 NPS + 102kgha -1 Urea had maximum and acceptable Marginal rate of return (MRR %) and net benefit. Therefore, this type and rate of blended fertilizer can be recommended since it produced a high marginal rate of return, high net benefit, and relatively low total cost of production, for wheat production in the study area and other similar agro-ecologies.

Keywords

• Blended Fertilizer, NPS, NPSB, Wheat, Grain Yield