Soil fertility depletion is a serious problem in Ethiopian highland due to leaching of topsoil by runoff, which reduces production and productivity. This experiment conducted in Debub Ari district for two years with the aim of investigating single and combined effect of compost and FYM with inorganic fertilizer on soil fertility improvement and onion crop production. The treatment includes T1) Control, T2) Recommended NP (69/30), T3) NPSZnB (120N, 92P2O5, 20.06S, 5.89Zn, 0.66B) kg ha-1 (264 kg NPSZnB + 161 kg urea), T4) 10 t ha-1 FYM, T5) 10 t ha-1 compost, T6) 5 tha-1 FYM + 50% of treatment-3 and T7) 5 t ha-1 compost + 50% of treatment-3. Treatments are arranged in randomized complete block design with three replications. Soil before the experiment showed moderately acidic, moderate in organic matter and boron, low in sulfur high in available P and total nitrogen. The results showed significant differences among the treatments on onion plant height, bulb diameter, marketable and biological yield. The highest total yield 19.99 t ha-1, 19.59 t ha-1 and 19.25 t ha-1 was recorded from NPSZnB (120N, 92P2O5, 20.06S, 5.89Zn, 0.66B) kg ha-1, 5 t ha-1 compost + 50% of T-3 and 5 t ha-1 FYM + 50% of T-3 respectively and that increase yield by 39%, 35% and 33% over the control. Soils after the experiment become medium in sulfur remain static in available boron and total nitrogen. Economic feasibility that the maximum net benefit of 246059 and 242442 ETB ha-1 with acceptable %MRR of 290 and 1300 was obtained with the application of NPSZnB (120N, 92P2O5, 20.06S, 5.89Zn, 0.66B) kg ha-1 and  5 t ha-1 FYM + 50% of T-3, respectively. Therefore, the application of those two treatments is recommended for higher yield production in the study area. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 12(2): 41-45, December 2022

Depletion of soil organic matter, depletion of macro- and micronutrients, lack of local specific fertilizer recommendation per commodity are among core constraints in Ethiopian soils that hinders crop production including sorghum. The experiment was conducted to evaluate blended fertilizer type effect on improving production of sorghum in Bena Tsemay district, Southwestern Ethiopia. The experiment was carried out in 2018 and 2019 main cropping season and laid out in RCBD following three replications with spacing of 75cm between rows and 20cm between plants. It was done by using control, (46N+68.7P2O5) kgha-1 , (142NPS+141Urea) kgha1 , (150NPSB+141Urea) kgha-1 , (160NPSBZn+144Urea) kgha-1 , (155NPSZn+141Urea) kgha1 , (197NPSBK+141Urea) kgha-1 and (207NPSBZnK+141Urea) kgha-1 treatments. Full dose of blended fertilizer, phosphorus, boron and potassium chloride fertilizers were applied at planting time and urea was applied in two split. Partial budget analysis with dominance and marginal analysis was done for economic evaluation. The result has revealed that sorghum has responded well to the application of macronutrients with micronutrients (Zn and B) than unfertilized. Application of 150kgha-1NPSB+141kgha-1Urea resulted in highest grain yield, while the lowest grain yield was recorded from the control. The highest economic returns of 230.06% was obtained from application of 150kgha-1NPSB+141kgha-1Urea; and it gives 43.85% yield increment and 31.86% increment in economic return over the control. Application of 150kgha-1NPSB+141kgha-1Urea was recommended for farmers and investor’s to produce sorghum on the study area and similar agro ecologies, as it was optimum for improving sorghum production. Further investigation should be done on plant nutrient uptake, nutrient use efficiency and optimization.

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