Rhizobium Inoculation and Chemical Fertilisation Improve Faba Bean Yield and Yield Components in Northwestern Ethiopia

Getenesh Genetu, Markku Yli-Halla, Mekonnen Asrat and Mihiret Alemayehu
Additional contact information
Getenesh Genetu: Dangla District Agriculture Office, Dangla, Ethiopia
Markku Yli-Halla: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
Mekonnen Asrat: Department of Plant Science, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos P.O. Box 269, Ethiopia
Mihiret Alemayehu: Department of Plant Science, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos P.O. Box 269, Ethiopia

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: The productivity of the faba bean has declined in Ethiopia, owing to poor management practices, such as blanket fertilisation. In 2018, a field experiment was conducted in a Nitisol soil during the main cropping season in Northwestern Ethiopia, to determine the amount of chemical fertiliser and Rhizobium inoculant to be used for the optimum yield within economic feasibility. The experiment consisted of a factorial combination of five rates of blended NPSZnB fertiliser (0, 60, 121, 180 and 240 kg ha −1 ) and three rates of inoculant (0, 500 and 750 g ha −1 ). Sole chemical fertilisation, as well as inoculation, individually produced a seed yield of 2.3–2.5 t ha −1 , about 1.0–1.2 t ha −1 more than the control. However, the maximum seed yield (3.3 t ha −1 ) was recorded from the combined application of both the chemical fertiliser and the inoculant. The seed yield correlated closely with the number of active nodules (R 2 = 0.78 **), suggesting a substantial contribution of symbiotic N 2 fixation. Inoculation increased the N content of the seed yield by at least 30 kg ha −1 . Chemical fertilisation, containing at least 44 kg ha −1 of mineral N does not appear to have an adverse effect on N 2 fixation. The combined use of 180 kg ha −1 blended fertiliser with 750 g ha −1 inoculant, producing a maximum net profit of 72,918 birr ha −1 (EUR 2232), is recommended for the study area. This study emphasises that (1) inoculation alone can produce as much seed as the maximum rate of chemical fertilisation, but (2) the maximum yield was produced with a combined use of inoculant and chemical fertiliser, by promoting the vigour of the nodules and N 2 fixation.

Keywords: Rhizobium inoculant; leguminous crop; chemical fertilisation; biofertilizer; Dangla district (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/7/678/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/7/678/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:7:p:678-:d:596819

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().