Agronomic and other Traits of Mung Bean (Vigna Radiata L.) Response to Different Levels of Phosphorus Fertilizer and Row Spacing for Better Grain Yield Production in Silte Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Mung bean is one of the important annual self-pollinated pulse crops. The study was conducted at Sankura wereda Jejebicho Kebele in 2020/21 main cropping season on Jejebicho research station of WGARC. We used mung bean variety called ‘Arkebe’’ released by HARC. This study was conducted to determine the optimum row spacing and phosphorus fertilizer rate for better grain yield of mung bean and to assess the economic value of using P for Mung bean production. The analysis data showed that, branch number per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seed per pod, above ground biomass yield, grain yield and harvest index of were significantly affected by due to the interaction effects of both Phosphorus fertilizer application and intra row spacing. The highest branch number per plant (8.55), number of pods per plant (31.17), number of seed per pod (13.45), above ground biomass yield (8901.5kg ha-1), grain yield (2500.6 kg ha-1) was obtained from the application of 60 kg P2 O5 ha-1 and 10cm intra row spacing but, maximum harvest index was from the application of 40 kg P2 O5 ha-1 and 15cm intra row spacing. that the highest mean net benefit (87307.56 ETB ha-1) with acceptable MRR (720%) was obtained in the application of 60 kg P2 O5 ha-1 with 40cm x10 cm row spacing. In contrast, the lowest mean net benefit (38,873.03 ETB ha-1) was obtained from the control (unfertilized) plot 40cm x 5cm row spacing. So, application of 60 kg P2 O5 ha-1 with 10 cm x 40cm row spacing is best and economical to mung production for farmers in the study area and similar agro-ecologies.