Evaluating The Effect of Integrated Use of Farm Yard Manure and Urea on the Socio economic Performance of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) at Tselemti Woreda, North western Tigray, Ethiopia.

Abstract

As compared to the potential productivity & national average yield of the crop, farmers in Tselemti ‘woreda ‘are not getting as much tomato yield /profit as expected, because of the low soil fertility & un proper soil management practices. To mitigate the problem farmers commonly use a blanket recommendation of inorganic fertilizers. But currently most farmers are not applying inorganic fertilizers at recommended rates, because of the high price of inorganic fertilizers. Hence, use of FYM would be un avoidable, particularly for resource poor farmers. However FYM alone may not be enough to meet the nutrient requirements of high yielding tomato varieties. So, integrated use of organic and inorganic plant nutrient sources help to overcome problems with the sole application and have more economic profit. This study was therefore conducted with the objective of evaluating the economic feasibility of combined use of FYM & Urea nutrient sources in tomato production & assessing farmer’s perception on the use & advantage for sustainable &better tomato production, in Tselemti wereda, May ani site during the 2012/13 off season time. Organic (FYM) and inorganic (Urea) nutrient sources was integrated in different proportions to supply 60Kgha^-1 of Nitrogen (N) from both sources at different ratios. The treatment combinations are T1 (control or with no fertilizer), T2 (100%IF), T3 (25% FYM+75%IF), T4 (50%FYM+50IF), T5 (75%FYM+25%IF) & T6 (100%FYM).Three ‘kebeles’ and 72 farmers was surveyed for the perception data. The partial budget analysis revealed that maximum net of return (59902.45) Birr/ha was recorded in treatments that receive 25% N from FYM in conjunction with 75% N from IF sources followed by 50%N from FYM and 50%IF with a net return of 56,386birrha^-1and 23,862.45 and 15,896.5 net return over the control. The Perception of the respondent farmers also indicates that 94.4% of the answered farmers use inorganic fertilizers in tomato production, but 48.61% of them were responded use of inorganic fertilizer in tomato production is not economically feasible and 44.4% use an integration of both nutrient sources for better tomato productivity. The overall study revealed that a combined application of FYM with Urea at (25:75 and 50:50 ratios) significantly increased economic profit in tomato production. Therefore, it is recommended for tomato producers of Tselemti wereda for profitable & acceptable tomato production.