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Integrated Use of Soil Ameliorants and Fertilizers to Increase Crop Yield on Acidic Soils of Ethiopian Highlands

Received: 21 May 2020    Accepted: 2 June 2020    Published: 28 July 2020
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Abstract

Agriculture has been contributed great share for Ethiopian economy. Ethiopian highlands endowed suitable climatic conditions for crop production, however land degradation in terms of soil acidity and nutrient depletion is becoming the major limiting factor to improve crop yield. Most farmers of Ethiopian highlands are resource poor, small-scale holder, in contrary most crop land characterized by severely eroded and nutrient depleted by interaction effect of environmental conditions and human activities. Around 130 tons/ha soil has been removed from cultivated land, annually besides 40% of the arable land of the country are characterized by acidic soils. To improve crop yield combining use of soil amelioration and fertilization management is critical in such problematic area. Thus, integrated use of 2-3 t/ha lime and NP mineral or organic fertilizers significantly increased crop yield in acidic soils of the country. However, high application rate (11-12 t/ha) of biochar or wood ash on acidic soils has showed equivalent crop yield response to lime rate, hence therefore poor resource farmers can able to ameliorate acidic soils by cheaper and local available materials.

Published in Advances in Bioscience and Bioengineering (Volume 8, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12
Page(s) 17-23
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Biochare, Fertilizer, Integrated, Lime and Nutrient Depleted

References
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    Mekonnen Asrat. (2020). Integrated Use of Soil Ameliorants and Fertilizers to Increase Crop Yield on Acidic Soils of Ethiopian Highlands. Advances in Bioscience and Bioengineering, 8(2), 17-23. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12

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    Mekonnen Asrat. Integrated Use of Soil Ameliorants and Fertilizers to Increase Crop Yield on Acidic Soils of Ethiopian Highlands. Adv. BioSci. Bioeng. 2020, 8(2), 17-23. doi: 10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12

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    Mekonnen Asrat. Integrated Use of Soil Ameliorants and Fertilizers to Increase Crop Yield on Acidic Soils of Ethiopian Highlands. Adv BioSci Bioeng. 2020;8(2):17-23. doi: 10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12,
      author = {Mekonnen Asrat},
      title = {Integrated Use of Soil Ameliorants and Fertilizers to Increase Crop Yield on Acidic Soils of Ethiopian Highlands},
      journal = {Advances in Bioscience and Bioengineering},
      volume = {8},
      number = {2},
      pages = {17-23},
      doi = {10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.abb.20200802.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.abb.20200802.12},
      abstract = {Agriculture has been contributed great share for Ethiopian economy. Ethiopian highlands endowed suitable climatic conditions for crop production, however land degradation in terms of soil acidity and nutrient depletion is becoming the major limiting factor to improve crop yield. Most farmers of Ethiopian highlands are resource poor, small-scale holder, in contrary most crop land characterized by severely eroded and nutrient depleted by interaction effect of environmental conditions and human activities. Around 130 tons/ha soil has been removed from cultivated land, annually besides 40% of the arable land of the country are characterized by acidic soils. To improve crop yield combining use of soil amelioration and fertilization management is critical in such problematic area. Thus, integrated use of 2-3 t/ha lime and NP mineral or organic fertilizers significantly increased crop yield in acidic soils of the country. However, high application rate (11-12 t/ha) of biochar or wood ash on acidic soils has showed equivalent crop yield response to lime rate, hence therefore poor resource farmers can able to ameliorate acidic soils by cheaper and local available materials.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    T2  - Advances in Bioscience and Bioengineering
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    AB  - Agriculture has been contributed great share for Ethiopian economy. Ethiopian highlands endowed suitable climatic conditions for crop production, however land degradation in terms of soil acidity and nutrient depletion is becoming the major limiting factor to improve crop yield. Most farmers of Ethiopian highlands are resource poor, small-scale holder, in contrary most crop land characterized by severely eroded and nutrient depleted by interaction effect of environmental conditions and human activities. Around 130 tons/ha soil has been removed from cultivated land, annually besides 40% of the arable land of the country are characterized by acidic soils. To improve crop yield combining use of soil amelioration and fertilization management is critical in such problematic area. Thus, integrated use of 2-3 t/ha lime and NP mineral or organic fertilizers significantly increased crop yield in acidic soils of the country. However, high application rate (11-12 t/ha) of biochar or wood ash on acidic soils has showed equivalent crop yield response to lime rate, hence therefore poor resource farmers can able to ameliorate acidic soils by cheaper and local available materials.
    VL  - 8
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Author Information
  • Department of Plant Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia

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