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Sorghum yield response to NPKS and NPZn nutrients along sorghum-growing landscapes

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/12035/
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479722000072
 
Title Sorghum yield response to NPKS and NPZn nutrients
along sorghum-growing landscapes
 
Creator Desta, G
Amede, T
Gashaw, T
Legesse, G
Agegnehu, G
Mekonnen, K
Whitbread, A M
 
Subject Sorghum
Others
 
Description Grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the major cereal crop used as staple crop in the arid and
semi-arid regions of Ethiopia. Low sorghum yields are attributed to soil, climate and topographic factors.
We investigated sorghum yield response to factorial combination of nitrogen and phosphorous (NP) as
well as potassium (K), sulphur (S) and zinc (Zn), and how the position of farmers’ fields belonging to
different landscape positions (i.e., upslope, mid-slope, and foot slope) could explain fertilizer response
and yield variability. The analysis in this study made use of dataset from two sets of on-farm experiments
where trials were set at two farmers’ fields for NPKS and three farmers’ fields for NPZn experiments in
each landscape position. The experiments were implemented at two sorghum-growing locations (i.e., Hayk
and Sirinka) in parts of the north-eastern Amhara region in Ethiopia. Sorghum yield response to fertilizer
application was strongly linked to the spatial variation along landscape positions and varied over locations.
Fertilizer response was significantly higher at foot slopes compared to mid-slopes and upslope positions,
where fields at foot slopes exhibited relatively homogeneous responses. Application of combined nitrogen
(N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers, landscape position and the interaction of fertilizer application and landscape
positions strongly affected sorghum yield. There was a linear and significant increase in sorghum
yield with the increase in the NP rates. The combined application of NP with different levels of KS as well
as NP with Zn fertilizer rates did not result in significant yield difference. The results indicated that local
factors were much more influential when accounting for the heterogeneity in sorghum yield response to
fertilizer. This further acknowledges the importance of a landscape-based fertilizer management approach
to respond yield potential variability related with the farmers’ fields and landscape environment. Further
investigation is needed to develop homogeneous fertilizer response units based on spatial variability of soil
and topographic attributes along the landscape.
 
Publisher Cambridge University Press
 
Date 2022-02-11
 
Type Article
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/12035/1/sorghum-yield-response-to-npks-and-npzn-nutrients-along-sorghum-growing-landscapes.pdf
Desta, G and Amede, T and Gashaw, T and Legesse, G and Agegnehu, G and Mekonnen, K and Whitbread, A M (2022) Sorghum yield response to NPKS and NPZn nutrients along sorghum-growing landscapes. Experimental Agriculture, 58 (e10). pp. 1-16. ISSN 1469-4441