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Abstract
Soil acidity is one of the major yield limiting factors for crop production in the western of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. A study experiment was done on acid soils to assess the ameliorating ability of lime when applied in split application and its effects on maize yield and selected soil properties in the study area. The experiment comprised six treatments namely [T 1 ]:Control (without any input), [T 2 ]:Only blanket fertilizer recommendation, [T 3 ]:Full dose of lime applied at one time, [T 4 ]:50% of the dose applied in the first year and the rest 50% in the second year, [T 5 ]:33% of the dose applied in the first year, 33% in the second year and the rest 33% in the third year and [T 6 ]:25% of the dose applied in the first year, 25% in the second year, 25% in the third year and the rest 25% in the fourth year and laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Lime requirement was determined based on exchangeable acidity of the soil. Soil analysis revealed that split lime application at different year raised soil pH from 5.01 to 5.30 and reduced the exchangeable acidity from 1.90 - 0.85 cmolc/kg of soil. Likewise yield of maize was significantly affected by the treatments. In order to reduce the large amounts of lime at once, split application of lime also gave similar higher yield of maize as that of at once lime application. Therefore, application of lime at once is un-affordable due to large amounts required per hectare of land and split application of lime could be considered as an alternative option for poor resource farmers for sustainable soil health and crop productivity. Keywords: Soil acidity, Split application of Lime, Maize yield, Soil properties DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/77-04 Publication date: January 31 st 2022
Highlights
Soil acidity is among the major land degradation problem worldwide
The research approach used so far gave little attention to this threatening problem and it need for urgent solution to minimize its adverse impact and foster its contribution to the country's food security and poverty eradication efforts. The objective of this experiment was to assess the ameliorating ability of lime when applied in split application and determine effects of split application of lime on maize yield and selected soil properties in the study area
Analysis of variance showed that soil pH and available phosphorous were significantly increased while, exchangeable acidity decreased due to split application of lime as compared to control and inorganic fertilizer application treatments
Summary
Soil acidity is among the major land degradation problem worldwide. It is estimated that over 11 million ha of land is exposed to soil acidity around the world. 32% of all arable land is acid and that figure claims to be 50% in tropics. In this region, high rain fall and temperature are dominating throughout the year round and results into high rate of weathering of the soil, high rate of leaching nutrients from soils, very rapid destruction of soil physical structure and texture, quick and sever erosion of the top soil and acute drought stress are signals of severe soil acidity (Eswaran et al, 1997). Nitisol/Oxisol zones are the main soil classes dominated by soil acidity These soils are predominantly acidic and have been found that more than 80% of the land masses originated from Nitisol are acidic
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