Abstract
The study was conducted at Negasa area in Guto Gida district to mitigate soil acidity using lime and vermicompost application on bread wheat land use of farmer’s field during 2018 main cropping season. The factors studied were four levels of agricultural lime (0, 50, 100 and 150% RR rated based on exchangeable acidity method) applied one month before planting and three levels of vermicompost (0, 2.5 and 5 t ha<sup>-1</sup>) applied two weeks before planting. The treatments were laid out as a RCBD in a factorial arrangement, and replicated three times. Representative soil samples were taken before and after planting. The soil physicochemical properties were analyzed following standard procedures. The soil pH and exchangeable basic cations (Ca and K) were significantly increased by 7.62, 31.16 and 26.08% respectively while exchangeable acidity and exchangeable Mg were significantly decreased by 47.73 and 26.53% respectively due to lime application at a level of 150% RR compared to control. While only exchangeable Mg, K and Na and soil bulk density were improved due to vermicompost application. The interaction effect of lime and vermicompost significantly influenced bulk density and total nitrogen of the soil. Simple correlation analysis among soil properties indicates that soil exchangeable acidity is significantly and negatively correlated with soil pH, exchangeable Ca and Na. It can be concluded that application of lime at the rate of 150% RR improve most chemical properties of acidic soil. Similar effort should be done over years to determine the long-term effect of lime and vermicompost on such acidic soil properties.
Highlights
Acidity-related soil fertility problems are the main factor that limit and prevent profitable and sustained soil productivity in many parts of the world [24]
The poor root growth leads to reduced water and nutrient uptake, and crops grown on acid soils are confronted with poor nutrients and water availability
Clay loam soil is suitable for crop production because it can hold sufficient water and contains a great deal of nutrients that are useful for plants [35]
Summary
Acidity-related soil fertility problems are the main factor that limit and prevent profitable and sustained soil productivity in many parts of the world [24]. In the western part of the country such as Assosa, soil acidity is a well-known problem limiting crop productivity [21]. Most cultivated lands of the Ethiopian highlands are prone to soil acidity due to removal of ample amount of nutrients by leaching, crop mining and runoff. The poor root growth leads to reduced water and nutrient uptake, and crops grown on acid soils are confronted with poor nutrients and water availability. The most common and widely used method to overcome soil fertility problem due to acidity is liming (13). Lime reduces Al, H, Mn, and Fe toxicities and increases P, Mg, Ca and Mo availability in acidic soils [36, 32, 42]
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