Determination of Appropriate Rate and Time of Nitrogen Application to Improve Productivity of Malt Barley (Hordium disticum L.) in Arsi Highland of Ethiopia

Abstract

Barley is produced in Ethiopia in a wide range of environments and it is produced on 0.95 million hectares. But production of malt barley is quite low in Ethiopia which is 2378010.3 tones per year. There are many reasons for low yield of barley in Ethiopia, among which low soil fertility is a major reason for low productivity of this crop. This experiment was conducted to determine the appropriate rate and time of nitrogen fertilizer application for malt barley at Kofele district of Arsi zone under rain fed condition for three years. The treatments consisted of four nitrogen fertilizer rates (23kg/ha, 46kg/ha, 69kg/ha and 92kg/ha) and three different times of nitrogen application (½ at planting and ½ at tillering, 1/3 at planting and 2/3 at tillering and all at planting). Malt barley variety Ebon was used for this experiment. Randomized complete block design with split plot arrangement of treatments with three replications was used. The three years combined data indicated that biological yield and grain yield was not significantly affected by both nitrogen fertilizer rate and time of nitrogen application.  But the highest biological yield (25624 kg/ha) and grain yield (7316.0kg/ha) of malt barley were recorded at the (92 kg/ha) and 46kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizer application, respectively. The combined data analysis indicated that nitrogen application rate significantly affected harvest index. The highest harvest index of malt barley 36.7 was obtained at 23 kg/ha of nitrogen application. Plant height showed highly significant difference and significance difference to nitrogen rate and timing of nitrogen application, respectively. The highest plant height (97.2cm) was recorded at 69 kg/ha of nitrogen. From timing of nitrogen application treatments, all at planting gave the highest plant height of malt barley which is 96.7cm. Spike per 50cm showed significant difference to nitrogen fertilizer rate and highest spike per 50cm of malt barley was recorded at 69 kg/ha. Even though, economic analysis was not done, 46kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizer and ½ at planting and ½ at tillering application time of nitrogen can be recommended for improving yield of malt barley at Kofele district.

Keywords: Experiment, Nitrogen fertilizer, Malt barley, Yield

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-12-02

Publication date:June 30^th 2022