Effect of Blended Fertilizers on Potato (Solanum tubersum L.) Agronomic Performance and Tuber Yield at Kokate Sodo Zuria District, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Potato (Solanum tubersumL.) is one of the most important cash and food security crop in Ethiopia. Its production is limited by low soil fertility, lack of quality seeds and diseases. To this effect, field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different blended fertilizer formulas on potato agronomic performance and tuber yield at Kokate Research Station (KRS) and on farmer’s field (OnF) in SodoZuria district of southern Ethiopia. The experiment consists of seven treatments: control (no fertilizers), N-P (110-40), N-P-K (110-40-100), N-P-S (110-40-17), N-P-S-B (110-40-17-1), N-P-S-B-Cu (110-40-17-1-1), and N-P-K-S-B-Cu (110-40-100-17-1-1) in kg ha-1. The experiment was set in randomized complete block design with three replications. Potato growth parameter (main stem number and plant height), tuber yield components and tuber yield were superior on OnF to KRS. Tuber number, average tuber weight and tuber size categories significantly (p<0.05) influenced by fertilizer application. The NPK fertilizer application improved marketable tuber yield by 50.5% at KRS and by 82%
at OnF, as compared to the control. However, the K content of the study soils was high to very high. Thus, balanced NPK fertilizer application resulted in higher nutrient use efficiency, higher marginal rate of return (MRR) and higher net benefit as compared to other blended fertilizers and the control. Therefore, based on the results N-P-K (110 N – 92 P2O5 - 100 K2O) fertilizer application could be recommended for potato production in KokateSodoZuria district, southern Ethiopia.