Integrated Use of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers for Maize Production

Abstract

Low soil fertility is one of the bottlenecks to sustain agricultural production and productivity in Ethiopia. Anthropogenic factors such as inappropriate land use systems, monocropping, nutrient mining and inadequate supply of nutrients are aggravated the situation. Integrated nutrient management (INM) is an option to alleviate soil fertility problem as it utilizes available organic and inorganic nutrients for sustainable agricultural production and productivity. Thus, to this effect, study of INM techniques to increase maize production and improve soil fertility was conducted for three consecutive years (2001 to 2003) on acidic Alfisols of Bako Agricultural Research Center, western Ethiopia. The treatments of the experiment were control (0), mucuna [Mucuna pruriens (L) DC] as improved fallow (IF), IF + 55/10 kg N/P ha-1, IF + 37/7 kg N/P ha-1, IF + 4 t farmyard manure (FYM) ha-1, IF + 2.7 t FYM ha-1, and the recommended rate of NP fertilizers (110/20 kg N/P ha-1). The treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed significant differences among the treatments on maize grain yield and plant height in all cropping seasons except in 2002. The sole use of IF increased maize grain yield by 75, 56 and 244 % in 2001, 2002 and 2003 cropping seasons, respectively, over the control treatment. The integrated use of IF along with FYM also improved important soil chemical properties, and the uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Therefore, the use of IF along with FYM or low dose of NP fertilizers could improve both maize yield and soil fertility in