Verification of Determined Soil Test Based Phosphorous Critical and Requirement Factor for Bread Wheat in Shashemene District

Abstract

Verification of P-critical value, P-requirement factor and optimum level of nitrogen fertilizer for bread wheat were conducted in Shashemene district during 2021 growing season. The verification activity was under taken at 10 farmer’s fields. It had three treatments that include calibrated phosphorus (critical concentration) with recommended optimum N fertilizer for the area, existing NP fertilizer recommendation (blanket recommendation) and one control plot without NP application. The treatments were applied 10m by 10m plot area that was replicated over the farmers. The yield was harvested and means comparison of grain yield was computed at (? < 0.05). The grain yield response were highly significantly different (P<0.05). Plots treated with soil test based fertilizer recommendation gave the highest grain yield (4312kg/ha) followed by the blanket recommendation that gave 3175kg/ha. The minimum grain yield was obtained from the negative control (1600kg/ha). In addition, maximum total biomass (10500kg/ha) and harvest index (41%) were also obtained from the plots treated with soil test based fertilizer recommendations. The partial budget analysis also indicated that the maximum net benefit of (103370.00ETB) and highest MRR (143%) were obtained from application of soil test based recommendation. Therefore, soil test based fertilizer application was recommended and selected for further pre scaling up of demonstration activities.