Abstract:
Soil fertility problem is the limiting factor for agricultural productivity in the highlands of Ethiopia.
Soil acidity coupled with soil nutrient depletion negatively affect the performance and yield of maize
in the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) region. The attention given to lime with nitrogen
fertilizer is none. This study was carried out at Burie district in one cropping season to determine the
effect of integrated use of lime and urea fertilizer rate on soil physicochemical properties, yield and
yield components of Maize. The treatments include lime (0 and 0.5 t ha-1), urea (0, 100, 200,300, and
400 kg ha-1). Recommended NPS (19% N, 38% P2O5 and 7% S) was used uniformly to all plots at
the time of seed sowing. The maize variety BH-661 was used as a test crop. The experiment was laid
out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with ten treatments replicated three times. Five
representative soil samples were collected and one composite sample was taken for surface soil
physicochemical properties analysis. After harvesting, disturbed soil samples were collected for soil
chemical properties analysis. A total of thirty undisturbed soil samples were collected from three
blocks for bulk density determination. Physical properties of soil texture before and bulk density were
analyzed before and after harvesting. The change in chemical properties of soil including pH, SOC,
OM, CEC, TN, Available P, and EC was also analysed following the standard laboratory procedure.
The Morpho-phenological parameters (50% tasselling,50% silking, days to 90% maturity, plant
height, number of leaves per plant, number of cobs per plant, number of grain per cob, 1000 grain
weight, grain yield, above ground dry biomass yield, harvest index, straw yield were collected and
analyzed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out using the SAS statistical package program
version 9.0. Duncan’s test was used to evaluate differences among treatment means where significant
differences were obtained by ANOVA. Soil physicochemical properties were changed due to lime and
urea. Field experiments revealed that individual, as well as combined application of lime and urea,
improved yield and yield components of maize. The maximum grain yield of maize was 7,122 kg ha-1
with the net benefit of 58,891 ETB ha-1. The economic analysis of maize result indicated that the
application of lime and Nitrogen fertilizer was found economically feasible for maize production.
Plots treated with mineral fertilizer were the best in nutrient use efficiency (5.88%). The
recommended treatments are T2 (100 kg ha-1 Nitrogen), T7 (0.5 t ha-1 lime and 100 kg ha-1 Nitrogen),
T8 (0.5 t ha-1 lime and 200 kg ha-1 Nitrogen) and T9 (0.5 t ha-1 lime and 100 kg ha-1 Nitrogen).
Because Mariginal rate of return of these treatments was greater than 100%. Based on the highest net
benfit combined application of 0.5 t ha-1 lime and 300 kg ha-1 urea is economically feasible and
recommended to the farmers.
Keywords: Economical, liming, Nitrogen, Optimum, Soil acidity