Abstract:
In Ethiopia, bread wheat is one of the most important strategic cereal crops. Ethiopian
government is putting a great effort to increase productivity and production of bread
wheat using irrigation to narrow the gap between demand and supply which is resulted
from low productivity and limited intensification of the crop and to provide food for the
population growing at alarming rate. Thus, the present research was initiated to assess the
optimum seeding rates of different varieties of wheat for maximum yield in Jawi, low land
area of northwestern Ethiopia using irrigation during off season in 2020/2021. The
experiment was laid out using randomized complete block design with three replications in
factorial arrangement of five levels of seeding rates (100, 125, 150, 175 and 200 kg ha
)
and three bread wheat varieties (Fentale-2, Kakaba and Ogelcho). Data of phenological,
vegetative growth and yield related parameters were collected and analyzed using SAS
software. Results revealed that both the main effects of seeding rate and variety affected
most of phenological, growth and yield related parameters of bread wheat except days to
emergence. The interaction of seeding rate and variety significantly affected on days to
heading, number of effective tillers, grain yield and thousand kernels weight. From the
present results it has been observed that, biomass yield, grain yield and straw yield were
significantly increased as the seeding rate was increased from 100 to 200 kg ha
whereas
spike length, number of kernels per spike and thousand kernels weight were significantly
decreased as seeding rate increased. Fentale-2 and Ogelcho at a seeding rate of 200 kg
ha
-1
and Kakaba at a seeding rate of 175 kg ha
-1
gave significantly higher grain
productivity (3.99, 3.5 and 3.4 t ha
-1
), respectively. Besides, 200 kg seed ha
with variety
Fentale-2 was found to be the best economically profitable combinations with a net benefit
of 65,778.8 Birr ha
-1
-1
-1
-1
and can be recommended for lowland irrigated areas of Jawi and
similar agro ecologies. However, as this result is one season and one location experiment,
it is necessary to repeat this experiment across different locations and over seasons to
come up with practical recommendations.