Effects of Seed and N Rate on Grain Yield and Yield Components of Barley

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Alicho District, Silti Zone, SNNPRS to evaluate the response of barely to seed rate and nitrogen fertilizer application since the response varies from location to location due to several factors. Thus, there is a need to determine seed rate and specific nitrogen fertilizer requirement of barely. The barley varieties (HB1370) were used as test crop and the experiment contained factorial combination of five levels of N (0, 23, 46, 69, 92kg ha-1) and was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The results from this study indicated that seed rate showed no significant effect on total biomass and harvest index while the remaining traits were significant. All parameters except plant height were reduced due to 100kg ha^-1 seed rate. All tested parameters were improved due to increasing nitrogen fertilizer levels. In general, grain yield tended to be higher under N 69 (4.90 t/ha) and 92kg ha-1 (5.29 t/ha) treatments with no significant difference. In contrast, the lowest grain yield (2.05 t/ha) was obtained from control treatment, maximum grain yield was obtained due to 92kg ha-1 followed by 69kg ha-1 with 80kg ha^-1. The future studies should articulate towards the studies involving more varieties and multi-location under diverse management practices such as research and farmer’s field’s conditions, which may facilitate finetuning of fertilizer recommendations.

Keywords: Seed rate, N rate, Barley, Grain yield