Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Oat (Avena sativa l.) is one of the most important crops in Ethiopia. However, its
productivity is very low as compared to world average productivity which is attributed to
poor agronomic practices like inappropriate seeding rate, improper adjustment of row
spacing, and other factors. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at West Belessa in
North Gondar Zone, during 2017 /2018 main cropping season. Four levels of seeding rates
(60, 80, 100 and 120 kg ha
-1
) and three rows spacing (10, 20, and 30 cm) were tested in
factorial arrangement in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications.
Phnological, growth, yield and yield related data were collected and their ANOVA was
analyzed using SAS 9.1software. Mean separation for significant parameters was done by
using least significant difference test. The results showed that almost all the agronomic
parameters like days to heading, plant height, effective tiller numbers, spike lengths, number
of spikelet spike
-1
, number of grain spike
-1
, straw yield, grain yield, thousand seed weight and
harvest index were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the main effect of seeding rate .and few
agronomic parameters like effective tiller numbers, biological yield and straw yield were
significantly (p<0.05) affected by the main effect of row spacing. Whereas grain yield and
1000 seed weight of oat were affected by the interaction effect of seeding rate and row
spacing. The results of this study indicated the importance of using appropriate seeding rate
and row spacing to increase yield of oat in the study area. Hence, the interaction of seeding
rate at 80 kg ha
-1
and 30 cm row spacing gave the highest grain yield (4406.44 kg ha
) while
seed rate of 120 kg ha
-1
and 10 cm row spacing gave lowest yield. Based on the agronomic
performance and yield result of this study 80 kg ha
-1
seeding rate and 30 cm row spacing were
recommended to West Belessa and for the same agro ecologies. However, further study needs
to be done under different seasons and locations to utilize the recommendation of the present
study.
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