Response of Faba bean (Vicia faba) to Application of Phosphorus Fertilizer Levels at Lemu Bilbilo District, South-eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

For two consecutive years (2017 - 2018), field experiments were carried out on different farm lands and provinces at Lemu-Bilbilo highland, southeastern Ethiopia, to assess, evaluate, and give recommendations of Phosphorus fertilizer requirement for faba bean crop by varying levels of phosphorus (0, 23, 46, 69, 92, 115 kg ha^-1 P₂O₅, and 46 kg ha^-1 P₂O₅ + 40 kg ha^-1 K₂O)  on growth performance and yield. The results revealed that phosphorus levels significantly affected number of tiller per plant, plant height, number of pods per plant, harvest index, grain yield and above ground biomass yield. The higher and lower number of tiller per plant (1.43 and 0.96) were recorded from plots received 69 and 0 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1 respectively. The maximum and minimum plant height and number of pods per plant (119.6cm and 13.98) and (102.7cm and 11.66) were recorded from plots received 92 and 0 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1 respectively. Similarly the highest and lowest grain yield and above ground biomass yield (4099.6 and 8127.4 kg ha^-1) and (3073.3 and 5713.8 kg ha^-1) were recorded from plots received 115 and 0 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1 respectively. Generally the result indicated that application of phosphorus (69 kg P₂O₅ ha^-1) with grain yield (3996.8 kg ha^-1), is economically feasible treatment for improving productivity of faba bean crop under the conditions of the present study.

Keywords: Experiment, Phosphorus fertilizer, Faba bean,  Lemu Bilbilo, South-eastern Ethiopia

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/11-8-02

Publication date: April 30^th 2021