Abstract
A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of plant spacing and phosphorus rates on yield related traits and yield of faba bean (Viacia faba L.) at Farmers Training Center, Duna District during 2015 summer cropping season. Three intra-rows spacing (5, 10 and 15 cm), three inter-rows spacing (30, 40 and 50 cm) and three phosphorus rates (0, 46 and 92 kg/ha) were tested. The experiment was laid out as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) and was replicated three times. Improved faba bean variety (Degaga) was ued as test crop. Phenological growth parameters yield and yield related data were collected and their ANOVA was analyzed using GenSta 5th edition and while treatment means were significantly different, they were separated using Least Significant Difference (LSD) at 5% probability level. There was highly significant (P<0.01) effect of the highest rate of phosphorus (92 kg P2O5 ha-1) on days to flowering, days to maturity, leaf area index, effective nodules per plant, plant height , primary tillers plant-1, seeds pod-1, hundred seed weight, grain yield, above ground dry biomass and harvest index. Significantly lowest days to flowering (54.3 days) after emergence and highest plant height (105.63 cm), leaf area (1073 cm2), seeds pod-1(3.57), grain yield (2633 kg ha-1), dry biomass (8108kg ha-1) and harvest index (32.47) were obtained from the highest rate of P (92 kg P2O5 ha-1). For all inter-rows spacing, the leaf area, number of primary tillers, pods plant-1, seeds pod-1 and hundred seed weight were increased as intra-row spacing increase and the highest leaf area (1084 cm2), primary tillers (2.99) and hundred seed weight (54.59 g) were obtained from the widest (50 cm) inter-row spacing, while the highest effective nodules (59.56) and leaf area index (3.51) were resulted from the narrowest (30 cm) inter-row spacing. On the other hand, the interaction effects of inter and intra-row spacing significantly influenced, number of pods plant-1, number of seeds pod-1, above ground dry biomass, grain yield and harvest index. The 30 cm inter-row by 15 cm intra-row spacing gave the highest grain yield (2495 kg ha-1), harvest index (35.79%) and pods plant-1(19.68) whereas the highest dry biomass (8738 kg ha-1) was obtained from 30 cm x 5 cm spacing combination. Thus, it can be concluded that application of 92 kg P2O5 ha-1 rate of phosphorus at 30 x 15 cm spacing combination proved to be superior with respect to grain yield in the study area. However, further study at least for one more cropping season under different soils is required to reach at conclusive recommendation.
Highlights
In Ethiopia a majority of the rural livelihoods depends on subsistence farming based on low external input systems
Identification of crop productivity constraints and relevant opportunities are very important to design interventions aiming at improved agricultural productivity and related to that improved livelihoods
The Government of Ethiopia is committed to scaling up best practices through its Agricultural Growth Programme (AGP-II)
Summary
In Ethiopia a majority of the rural livelihoods depends on subsistence farming based on low external input systems. In most households no surplus of food will be available and even during normal rainfall years around 40% of the farm households structurally depend on food aid (pers.com staff Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development) Food aid in such cases might have become part of the livelihood strategy of farmers in Ethiopia [2]. To address the various community problems, it is imperative to design technically sound, economically feasible and culturally acceptable research, extension and development strategies. To this end, Fadis agricultural research center initiated a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) study in Harari Region, eastern Ethiopia. The main objectives of the study were to assess the farming systems, determine major biophysical and crop production constraints and opportunities for farming communities and identifying, documenting best practices and innovations with respect to environmental, socio-economic and agricultural production constraint conditions for further testing and possible scaling up
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