Influence of Liming to Alleviate Soil Acidity and Phosphorus Fixation through Amelioration of Soil Nutrient Availability

Abstract

Nutrient availability and phosphorus fixation is one of the crop yield limiting factors in acidic Soil of western Ethiopia. Thus, a field experiment was carried out in 2014 main cropping season from the end of June to end November at Haro Sabu to assess the influence of lime and phosphorus rates on the yield of groundnut. The treatments were factorial combination of five rates of phosphorus (0, 11.5, 23, 46, 57.5 kg P2O5) and four rates of lime (CaCO3) (0, 2.25, 3 and 3.75 tons ha-1) in randomized complete block design and replicated three times. The pre soil analysis indicated that the soil of experimental area was acidic (pH = 5.31) and low in available P (2.34 mg kg-1). The soil textural class was sandy clay loam with constituents of sand (53%), clay (19%) and silt (28%). Application of both lime and phosphorus to the Experimental plot increased exchangeable Ca, available phosphorus and total nitrogen while decreased exchangeable aluminum. The main effect of phosphorus and lime showed a significant effect on seed yield. Increasing phosphorus rate increased dry pod yield and seed yield linearly up to 23 kg P2O5 ha-1 while increasing lime rate to the level of 3 tons ha-1increased shelling percentage and seed yield to maximum level but further addition of lime supply high dry pod yield at the rate of 3.75 tons lime ha-1.