Evaluation of different blended fertilizer types and rate for better production of Tef in Abashgie District, Guragie Zone, Ethiopia

Tef is one of the major crops grown at Abashgie District, Southern Regional State; however, its productivity is low due to lack of balanced nutrient. An experiment was conducted in Guragie Zone, Abashgie District on farmers’ field in 2018/-2019 G.C cropping seasons, to evaluate different blended fertilizer types and rates on yield and yield components of Tef. The Tef variety “Boset” was tested at three types of different blended fertilizers that have three rates per each blend, that is NPSB (150,200 and 250) kg ha-1, NPSZnB (160, 213 & 267) kg ha-1 and NPSZnBFe (160,213 & 267) kg ha-1 adjusted with different rate of urea. The experiment consisted of ten treatments including control and arranged in RCBD with three replications. Results showed a significant response to all tested growth and yield parameters. The highest grain yield (2660 kgha-1) was obtained from application of Treatment 10 (267 kg NPSZnB+ 152 kg urea ha-1 +Fe) which is not statistically different from Treatment 9 (213 kg NPSZnB + 122 kg urea ha-1) + Fe) and Treatment 7 (213 kg NPSZnB + 122 kg urea ha-1) which gave (2470 kgha-1) and (2500 kgha-1) respectively. The lowest grain yield (480 kg ha-1) was obtained from control. According to economic analysis results, seven treatments were selected as dominant over others and treatment 9 (213 kg NPSZnB + 122 kg urea ha-1 + Fe) showed low cost, good net benefit and acceptable MRR which is better compared to others. Therefore, based on the results, application of treatment 9 (213 kg NPSZnB + 122 kg urea ha-1 + Fe) was recommended for better production of tef at Abashgie District.