PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MUNG BEAN (Vigna radiata(L.) Wilczek) VARIETIES UNDER VARIABLE PHOSPHOROUS FERTILIZER RATES AT ALAGE, CENTRAL RIFT VALLEY OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Mung bean is an important pulse crop in Ethiopia. However, lack of adapted high yielding varieties and poor soil fertility, especially low levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, have been demonstrated to be important constraints for the production of the crop. Field experiment was conducted during the 2019 belg season to determine the Performance Evaluation of Mung Bean (Vigna Radiata(L.) Wilczek) Varieties Under Variable Phosphorous Fertilizer Rates at Alage Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training college Experimental field. The treatments consisted of factorial combinations of four mung bean varieties ( Boreda-1, N26, NVL-1 and shoa robit local) and four phosphorus fertilizer rates (0, 23, 46 and 69 kg P2O5 ha-1 ) laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. Data were collected on plant height , number of nodules plant-1 , nodules dry weight plant-1 , root dry weight plant-1 , shoot dry weight plant-1 , number of branches plant-1 ,number of pods plant-1 , number of seeds pod-1 , hundred seeds weight, grain yield, harvest index, biological yield, days to flowering and maturity. The variety Boreda-1 showed the best performance in number of pods plant-1 , number of seeds pod-1 ,and grain yield whereas NVL1 gave the lowest performance.Variety Boreda-1 also gave the highest gross benefit of 47624.22 ETB and the highest net benefit of 46749.22 ETB. But the lowest gross return and net return were obtained from variety NVL-1 ,with 40044.38 ETB and 39169.38 ETB, respectively. The increasing rates of phosphorous fertilizer showed substantial improvement in nodules dry weight plant-1 , shoot dry weight plant-1 , plant height, grain yield, and biological yield up to fertilizer rates of 46 kg P2O5 ha-1 . Application of 46 kg P2O5 ha-1 recorded the highest gross income of 47053.13 ETB and net return of 45003.13 ETB and the lowest values were recorded from the control; which were 40280.63 ETB and 40280.63 ETB in that order. From the study,the interaction of variety Boreda-1 with phosphorous fertilizer rates of 46 Kg P2O5 ha-1 recorded highest gross income of 50321.25 ETB and net return of 47396.25 ETB .While, the lowest was recorded from the interaction of variety NVL-1 with phosphorous fertilizer rates of 0 Kg P2O5 ha-1 with a gross income of 36303.75ETB and net return of 35428.75 ETB. Accordingly,variety Boreda-1 and application of 46 kg P2O5 ha-1 ,can be used to improve productivity of mung bean in the study area.