Pilot Review Study on Yield Gaps and Cost Benefits of Different Sized Seeds of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties

Abstract

The main goal of this systematic pilot study is to determine the best plant population rate of bread wheat crop by identifying the most cost-effective varieties depending on their seed size in order to deliver an overview of some other bread wheat production management requirements in general and specifically in Ethiopia, comparing with current research trends as well as to make the appropriate seed rate recommendations for small, medium and large sized seeds reliant varieties, for better yield efficiency, grain quality and cost-effective benefits of bread wheat crop. This paper studied the proper application of the optimum plant-population’s reliant seeding rate under ideal environment availability of which may help in improving the yield capacity gaps by identifying the most cost-effective variety from so far conducted seed rate experiments depending on their seed size of bread wheat varieties. To optimize the plant-population’s dependent seed rate of wheat, some experiments have conducted so far across most wheat growing areas of Ethiopia. The field experiments were conducted in different times at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center from July to November 2012. Quite similar field experiment was also conducted at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center from June to 2018 cropping season, Three bread wheat varieties (Hidassie, Dendea and Shorima) representing different seed sizes of large, medium, small, respectively and four plant population levels of 250, 300, 350 & 400 plants m-2 were tested. The interaction effects of varieties seed size and plant population on grain yield showed statistically significant (p<0.01) variation, likewise biomass yield and straw yield indicated significant (p<0.05) variations. The grain yield resulted in (4.309 Ton ha-1), similarly biomass yield and straw yield are (11.00 Ton ha-1) and (5.28 Ton ha-1) respectively, and it suggests that these traits are generally enhanced by the genetic makeups of the variety Hidassie /large seed size. Economic analysis using partial budget procedure was performed on grain yields to determine the treatment with most profitable returns. The beneficial marginal rate of return (8.50) and benefit cost ratio (8.07) was obtained from the variety Hidassie/large seed size at a plant population of 300 seeds m-2 followed by a marginal rate of return (9.55) and benefit cost ratio (8.05) were also recorded again from the variety Hidassie/large seed size at plant population of 250 plants m-2. So the most cost-effective variety and plant population level for farmers with low cost of production and higher benefits were identified to be the variety Hidassie/large seed size at the plant population level of 300 plants m-2 in the rain fed cropping season is identified as low cost of production with highest benefit and can be recommended for the producers of bread wheat crop. The plant-population level of 250 plants m-2 for variety Hidassie/large seed size was also cost-effective with highest netbenefit and can be recommended as another possible choice