Abstract:
The economy of Ethiopia is based on agriculture; however Ethiopia's agriculture is plagued
by periodic drought, soil degradation, caused by overgrazing, deforestation, and high
population density. Soils in the highlands of Ethiopia usually have low levels of essential
plant nutrients and organic matter (OM) content and low soil fertility is one of the critical
issues to sustain agricultural production and productivity in the country. The integrated use
of organic nutrient sources with inorganic fertilizer was shown to increase the potential of
organic fertilizer and to improve the efficiency of inorganic fertilizers, The experiment was
conducted in rained fed agriculture for 2016/17 cropping season in Dembia Woreda to
explore the effects of integrated application of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the major
soil chemical properties and on the productivity of maize. The treatments used were factorial
combination of three rates of compost (0, 5 and 10 ton) and five rates of blended fertilizers (0,
100kg, 200kg, 200+kg and 200kg DAP). Improved maize variety of BH-540, widely used in
the study area, was used as a test crop. The field experiment was laid out in randomized
complete block design (RCBD) with three replications and the laboratory analysis including
before planting and after harvesting soil sample, compost nutrient content analysis was done
in appropriate procedure at Gondar Soil testing laboratory. There was statistical difference
between the sole use of organic and inorganic fertilizers as well as integrated application
which shows in (table 4, 5 and 6), (200kgblended fertilizer which is recommended for
exponential site(T3)) productivity (8.81 ton/ha) was lower than the integration application of
half blended and 10 ton /ha compost (9.13 ton/ha) and almost equal production to 5 ton
compost with 100 kg blended fertilizer application (T7) increased OM, N, P and K nutrients
content (4.05%, 0.16%, 26.43 mg kg
-1
, 1.17 coml./kg) respectively. From the result of the
experiment, and MRR, application of 200 kg DAP fertilizer with 200 kg urea was
recommended. However, application of 5 ton compost ha
-1
+ 100 kg blended ha
xv
-1
with split
application of 200 kg ha
-1
urea could also be recommended if organic materials for compost
preparation are scarce and when the prime objective is to get higher maize yield. It is also
necessary develop further research such as nutrient omission trial to verify nutrient–nutrient
interaction before recommendation of blended fertilizers specially to recommend the micro
nutrient such as boron and others, soil test based is optional because micro nutrients are not
only essential but also toxic if there are excess.
