Effect of Nitrogen Fertilizer Rate on Grain Yield and Malt Quality of Three Malt Barley (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Hordeum vulgare &amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;L.) Varieties at Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

Fasil Shimelis,Zenebe Mulatu

doi:10.11648/j.jps.20210904.16

Abstract

Grain yield and malt quality of barley are largely influenced by the specific variety, soil property and applied nitrogen fertilizer rates. Consequently, nitrogen fertilizer application could lead to tradeoff between grain yield and malt quality and grain yield resulting in significant loss for beverage industries and farmers. Thus a field experiment was carried out during 2018/2019 main cropping season on Nitisol at Arsi Zone of Ethiopia to study the effect of grain yield and malt quality response of malt barley (Hordeum vulgar L.) Varieties to different rates of nitrogen fertilizer. Factorial combination of three malt barley varieties (Holker, Ibon and Fanaka) and five rates of nitrogen fertilizer (11.5, 23, 34.5, 46 and 57.5 kg N ha-1) were laydown in split plot arrangement Nitrogen fertilizer rate as main plot and varieties as sub plot replicate three times. Data on soil sample analysis results revealed that, the soil physic-chemical property didn’t show significant variation in both before planting and after harvest. The interaction effects of nitrogen fertilizer rate and varieties had significant influence on grain yield, thousand kernel weight and hectoliter weight. Malt extract content and germination energy were significantly affected by main effect of malt barley varieties, while grain protein content affected only by nitrogen rate. Thus application of 57.5 kg N ha-1 to Ibon malt barley variety produced better (2.629 t ha-1) grain yields at the study area. From this point of view it can be conclude that Ibon Varity fertilized with 57.5 kg N ha-1 was found to be better in terms of both yield performance and economic feasibility for malt barley production in study area.

Highlights

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) belongs to family poaceae and is a fast growing, cool season, annual grain crop that could be used as forage as well as cover crop to improve soil fertility [14]
European Union, Russia, Canada, USA and Argentina are the top five largest world barley producers where, European Union produces the greatest quantities with an estimated of 20.5 million tons followed by Russian federations about 8 million tons, whereas Canada, USA and Argentina barley production was estimated 7.3, 3.1 and 2.8 million tons respectively [28]
The major crops that grown in this wereda are cereal crops, legume crops, oil crops, and vegetable crops (Potato, cabbage and carrot) [16]

Summary

Introduction

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) belongs to family poaceae and is a fast growing, cool season, annual grain crop that could be used as forage as well as cover crop to improve soil fertility [14]. Global barley production is estimated about 141.7 million tons [28]. Ethiopia is the second largest producer of barley in Africa next to Morocco. It accounts 5.6 percent of the total cereal production in the country [12, 24]. It is the fifth important cereal crop next to teff, maize, sorghum and wheat in the country’s domestic production with total area coverage of 959,273.36 hectares and total annual production of about 2.03 million tons in main season, the mean barley productivity was 2.1 tons ha-1 [9]. Ethiopia is recognized as a center of diversity, as its barley germplasm has global significance since landraces include disease resistance traits [8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion