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Abstract: |
Ethiopia rank 21st in the
world’s with share of 1.2% and 2nd next to morocco with
share of 26% in Africa in total barley production; however,
it’s productivity has been still low (2.18 tons) compared to
3.3 tons ha-1 in Kenya and 6 tons ha-1 in developed
countries. This low productivity and quality has been
resulted from soil fertility depletion and low rate use of
organic and chemical fertilizers below the rate required and
unbalanced application of nutrients. This experiment was
conducted to test the effect of integrated use of organic
Beer biosludge (0, 5, 10 and 15 t ha-1) and inorganic
blended NPS fertilizer (0, 75, 100 and 150 kg ha-1NPS) on
growth, yield and yield component of malt barley at
Lemu-Bilbilo District in Arsi Zone in 2019 cropping season.
The experiment was arranged in randomized complete block
design having sixteen treatments in three replications. The
analysis of variance showed that the main effect of blended
NPS fertilizer significantly influenced seed per spike,
plant height, moisture content of the grain, grain yield,
biomass yield, harvest index and protein content. The main
effect of Beer biosludge resulted significant differences on
productive tillers, number of seed per head, spike length,
biomass, plant height, grain yield, thousand kernel weight,
harvest index, moisture content, 50% days to heading and
protein content. The interaction effect of NPS fertilizer
and Beer biosludge also brought significant differences on
plant height, productive tillers, hectolitre weight, grain
yield, thousand kernel weight, harvest index, seed per spike
and moisture content of the grain. The highest (19.49 t
ha-1) and lowest (12.26 t ha-1) mean biomass yield per
hectare were obtained from plots fertilized with 15 t BBS
along with 75 kg NPS ha-1 and 5 t BBS ha-1 alone,
respectively; and similarly, highest grain yield (9.26 t
ha-1) was recorded from 15 t BBS application along with 150
kg NPS ha-1 and lowest (3.94 t ha-1) from the control plot.
Highest marginal rate of return (3981%) was obtained from
plot treated with 100 kg NPS ha-1 along with 5 t BBS ha-1
and highest protein content from plot treated with 100 and
150 kg NPS ha-1. Also growth, yields and quality parameters
significantly and positively correlated to each other due to
organic and inorganic fertilizers applied. Thus, application
of 5 tons ha-1 of BBS along with 150 kg ha-1 is better to
improve productivity of malt barley and can be used as an
alternative soil management option for malt barley
production at an experimental area and the like. However, to
come to concrete recommendation, similar research should be
done with the inclusion of more biosludge rates in
combination with different blended inorganic fertilizers and
different varieties of malt barley at different locations
and seasons. |
