College of Agriculture

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The College of Agriculture is committed to advancing agricultural education, research, and community service. It serves as a center for knowledge creation and dissemination in crop science, animal production, natural resource management, and sustainable agriculture.

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    RESPONSE OF BARLEY (Hordeum vulgare L.) GENOTYPES TO INORGANIC FERTILIZER TYPES UNDER ACIDIC SOIL OF HAGERESELAM, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
    (Hawassa University College of Agriculture, 2020) HAILU HAMESO
    Barley is one of the most important cereal crops in the world. It is a staple food grain, especially for Ethiopian highlanders. However, the barley productivity is commonly influenced by different biotic and abiotic factors. Soil acidity is one of the main environmental factors affecting growth and crop yield. Field experiment was conducted on acidic soil of Hagereselam, southern Ethiopia in 2019 cropping season to evaluate the performance of barley genotypes in terms of yield and yield components under different inorganic fertilizer types. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with factorial arrangement with three replication and consisted of four fertilizer types (control, NP, NPS and NPSB) and four barley genotypes (217176b, 240478, 234911b and 208855b) and one barley variety (HB- 1307) as a check. Both main and interaction effects influenced days to physiological maturity, plant height, number of effective tillers m -2 , above ground total biomass and grain yield. However, days to heading, spike length, number of grain per spike, 1000 grain weight, straw yield and harvest index were only affected by main effects. Barley Genotype 217176b with NPSB fertilizer exhibited the highest grain yield of (4.9 ton ha -1 ). However, it did not significantly differ from the yield obtained from the same genotype under NP (4.72 ton ha -1 ) and genotype 240478 with NPSB fertilizer application (4.58 ton ha -1 ). The lowest yield was recorded from genotype 208855b with control fertilizer. Genotypes 217176b and 240478 were categorized as efficient and responsive to fertilization under the evaluation. The highest marginal rate of return (MRR %), 3745.35, recorded from the application of recommended rates of NPSB fertilizer for genotype 217176b. Greater net benefits with more than the minimum acceptance value of 100% of MRR were obtained for the same genotype with NP. Similarly economically acceptable performances were obtained for genotype 240478 either with NPSB or NP fertilization. Given the fact that grain yield performance between the two genotypes in combinations either with NPSB or NP is not statistically significant, either of the two genotypes with the NPSB or NP fertilizer can be recommended for barley production in acidic soils of Hagereselam and acidic soils of similar agro-ecologies in the highlands of Ethiopia. Further studies that are replicated at least over seasons are needed to investigate response of the two promising barley genotypes to application of inorganic fertilizers under acidic soil conditions in order to come up with a conclusive recommendation.