Effect of Blended NPSB and Urea Fertilizers Rate on Yield and Yield Component of Wheat on Nitisols at Welmera Districts, Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

Wheat productivity in Ethiopia is low due to nutrient deficiency, low chemical fertilizer usage, and poor management practices are among the major constraints. Now adays, proper and balanced fertilizer recommendations is a principal in order to increase the crop productivity in Ethiopia. Taking this in a Point of view, a field experiment was conducted from 2017 to 2019 cropping season at Welmera districts to determine optimum blended NPSB and urea fertilizer rate for wheat production. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications. The treatment consists of four NPSB rate (100, 150, 200, 250 kg/ha) with three rates of urea (150, 250, 350kg/ha) were tested with one Recommended NP (60N/69P₂O₅) kg/ha as standard check and one treatment negative control having 14 treatments used for experiments. Grain yield and biomass yields recorded on plot basis were converted to kg ha^-1 for statistical analysis. The results revealed that yield and yield componets of wheat affected by application of NPSB and urea fertilizer rates. The highest biomass yield (16,875 kg ha⁻¹) and highest grain yield (4984.3 ha^-1) were obtained from application of 250 kg NPSB with 350 kg urea ha^-1, while the lowest biomass yield and grain yield were recorded from control plot. Whereas based on partial budget analysis application of 100 kg NPSB ha^-1 with 350 kg urea ha^-1 provided relatively with high net benefit and hence these could be the best rate to apply.