| dc.description.abstract |
Durum wheat is one of the major cereal crops produced in Adea district of Oromia Regional
State, for both home consumption and the market. However, its productivity is low due to the
low availability of soil nutrients and agro-climatic variabilities. Therefore, a field experiment
was carried out in Debre Zeit agricultural research centre during 2023 main cropping seasons
to determine the effect of blended NPSB and N fertilizer rates on the productivity and quality
of durum wheat. The treatments consisted of four levels of blended (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg
NPSB ha
−1
) and five levels of nitrogen (0, 46, 69, 92, 138, and 184 kg N ha
) fertilizer rates.
The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design in a factorial arrangement
and replicated three times. Data such as agronomic and quality parameters were collected and
analyzed using SAS-JMP software. Analysis of the results revealed that chlorophyll content 2,
−1
normalized difference vegetation index 1 and 2, days to heading, days to physiological
maturity, plant height, grain yield, harvest index, thousand kernel weight, protein content, and
hectolitre weight were very highly significantly (p<0.001) affected by the interaction effect of
blended NPSB and nitrogen fertilizer rates. The highest values of phenological parameters
(days to 50% heading [66.33] and days to physiological maturity [116.33]), growth parameters
(chlorophyll content [58.6], normalized difference vegetation index 1 and 2 [0.60 and 0.89,
respectively], plant height, total tillers and effective tillers m
[95.5, 366.3 and 233.3,
respectively]), yield and yield-related parameters (number of kernels per spike, above-ground
-2
biomass yield, grain yield, harvest index [47.3, 4.6, 3451 and 76, respectively]) and quality
parameters (protein content, hectolitre weight and thousand kernel weight [16.6, 79.3 and
41.3] were recorded at the combined application of 150 kg of blended NPSB with 184 kg of N
ha
. The result of the economic analysis also showed that the combined application of 150 kg
NPSB and 184 kg N ha
−1
−1
gave a maximum economic benefit of 198,971ETB ha
with an
acceptable marginal rate of return (10,395%). Therefore, it could be concluded that the
combined application of 150 kg of blended NPSB with 184 kg ha
of N fertilizer rates gave the
maximum grain yield, protein content, hectolitre weight, and thousand kernel weight yield with
the highest net benefit.
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en_US |