Evaluation of Alternative Soil Amendments and Response to Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum) Productivity in Ada’a District, Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted during 2014 main cropping season in Ada’a district, central highlands of Ethiopia to evaluate the impacts of soil fertility amendments on the productivity of bread wheat. Relevant agronomic traits were recorded from each plot. The amendments included solo and combined application of compost, bio slurry and inorganic fertilizers including control field with three replication. The wheat variety used for the study was Kekeba. The design was randomized complete block and to compute the numerical data, SPSS software was used. The agronomic analysis results revealed that there was a significant difference (P<0.001) in all the agronomic traits. The highest plant height, spike length, spikelet spike^-1 and 1000 grain weight were obtained from the application of compost at the rate of 64.4 N & 46 kg P ha^-1 along with inorganic fertilizer at the rate of 98.5 N & 46 kg P ha^-1 while the highest grain yield and biomass yield were obtained from the application of 96 N & 69 kg P ha^-1 inorganic fertilizers. The lowest grain yield and biomass yield were obtained from control field. Therefore, it can be concluded that combined application of dry matter compost along with inorganic fertilizers can be an option for wheat production in the study area.

Keywords: Dry matter compost, Dry matter bio Slurry, Inorganic Fertilizers, Amendments, Wheat Productivity, Vertisols, Ada’a district, Central Ethiopia