Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Research
Open Access

Abstract

Effect of Combined Use of Cattle Manure and Inorganic Nitrogen and Phosphorus on Yield Components Yield and Economics of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in Belg and Meher Season at Abeo area Masha District, South-Western Ethiopia

Isreal Zewide, Tamado Tana, Lemma Wog and Ali Mohammed

Soil fertility decline is considered as one of the major causes for resulting in reduced yield of potato production in Abelo area Masha district Sheka zone of south-western Ethiopia. Hence, a field experiment was conducted in Belgnand Meher season, in Abelo area, Masha district south-western Ethiopia, to investigate the effect of combined use of application of Cattle Manure (CM) with mineral NP on growth, yield components, yield, the economics of potato, and on selected soil physio-chemical characteristics. The treatments comprised combinations of three rates (2.5,5, 7.5 tha-1) of CM with 25%, 50% and 75% of recommended rates of mineral NP, respectively. In addition, 100% recommended rate of mineral NP (165 kg N ha-1 and 137 kg P2O5 ha-1) and zero rates were used for comparison. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results revealed that applying 7.5 tha-1 CM combined with 75% mineral NP gave significantly. the highest marketable tuber numberhill-1(9.72 and 8.7064) and total tuber number hill-1(13.29 and 11.076) and marketable tuber yield (27.491 and 28.700 kg ha-1) and total tuber yield (4020 and 34221) of potato in Belg and Meher season, respectively. The application of 7.5 tha-1 CM in combination with 75% mineral NP has increased tuber yield by 55.9% and 43.45% in Belg and by 51.19%, and 36.64% in Meher over the control and the application of 100% recommended rate of NP fertilizers, respectively. Similarly, the economic evaluation showed that the application of 7.5 ha-1 CM plus 75% mineral NP offered the highest net return of 91704.60 Birr ha-1 in Belg and 119887 Birr ha-1 in Meher season. Therefore, it can be concluded that, the use of combined application of CM (7.5 t ha-1) together with 75% of recommended rates of mineral NP (123.75 kg N ha-1 and 103.05 kg P2O5 ha-1) can significantly increase potato yield, gave a high economic return and improve soil health.