Abstract

Teff is one of the major crops grown in central and north western zones of Tigray regional state. However, its productivity is low due to low soil fertility as a result of intensive and long history of cultivation and soil erosion. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out on a farmer’s field in Medebay zana and Tahtay koraro districts (Adekemalk and Beles kebelles) during the 2017 and 2018 main cropping seasons to evaluate the response of NPSZnB fertilizers on yield and yield components of teff. The treatments consisted of seven levels of NPSZnB (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300kg ha-1) and control treatment recommended NP (64:46) kgha-1. The experiment was laid out in a RCBD design with three replications. Analysis of the results revealed that, days to 50% heading, plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, straw yield, grain yield and harvest index resulted in significant difference over the control plot at both districts. However, days to 90% physical maturity and head panicle length at Medebay zana district and harvest index at Tahtay koraro have no significant difference within any of their treatments. The highest grain yields (2165.3 and 1996.6 kg ha-1) were obtained in response to the application of 200 and 250 kg ha-1of NPSZnB. It has 56.9 and 55.9% yield increment over control and 7.4 and 11% over the blanket recommendation at Medebay zana and Tahtay koraro districts, respectively. Thus, applications of 200  and 150 kg blended NPSZnB ha-1 with N adjusted to 64 kg N ha-1 is economically beneficial as compared to the other treatments in Medebay zana and Tahtay koraro districts, respectively because the highest net benefit and the marginal rate of return was above the minimum level (100%).

Keywords: Blended, boron, zink, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, teff and yield.