Household Fertilizers Use and Soil Fertility Management Practices in Vegetable Crops Production: The Case of Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
Journal Title: STAR Journal - Year 2013, Vol 2, Issue 4
Abstract
Large areas of farms are covered by variety of vegetable crops in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. With a view to improve current vegetable production fertilizer use efficiency, survey has been conducted through collections of baseline information to describe household fertilizer uses and soil fertility management in vegetable production system using descriptive statistics. Multistage samplings were made to select representative growers in the six districts of East Showa zone. Based on field observations and group discussions, vegetable growers grouped their farm land into four local categories. The survey revealed that tomato growers apply variable rates of urea and DAP fertilizers for tomato cultivation. Survey results indicated that highest 43.61% of onion growers apply 200 kg of DAP fertilizer on their onion field, while 30.85% of growers apply 300 kg DAP per ha, another 39.35% apply, 400 kg and above DAP fertilizer, still 8.5% of onion growers apply 600 kg DAP fertilizer on their onion farm. This survey indicated that fertilizers were not wisely used in the vegetable crops production systems and the applications are in excess rate, which could leads to pollution of the environment from over dose application and from runoff in to the water bodies and leaching in to the ground water with economic loss. Most of the tomato and onion growers use three splits application of UREA and DAP mainly at transplanting, at first and second cultivation for both crops as top-dressing. The survey results indicated that 54.44% of onion growers apply an average of 230.35 kg ha-1 DAP at transplanting, while 46.53% apply an average of 188.29 kg ha-1 DAP at second split application, and finally 17.82% apply an average of 119.44 kg ha- 1 DAP at last third split applications. This is the first document come across that vegetable growers in the CRV area apply DAP fertilizer as much as three splits. This indicates that there are no systems of updating of frontline development workers; poor extension services with shallow development workers knowledge made the growers totally depend on their own innovations for vegetable production.
Authors and Affiliations
Edossa Etissa| Agronomy and Horticulture, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Post Box No: 436, Adama, Ethiopia, Nigussie Dechassa| Agronomy and Horticulture, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Post Box No: 436, Adama, Ethiopia, Tena Alamirew| Water and Land Resource Centre, Rahem Building, Diaspora Square, Megenagna, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Yibekal Alemayehu| College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Post Box No: 337, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, Lemma Desalegne| Agronomy and Horticulture, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Post Box No: 436, Adama, Ethiopia
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP9604
- DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/star.v2i4.9
- Views 367
- Downloads 19
Study of Production Practices, and Productivity of Village Chicken in Chelliya District, Ethiopia
No Abstract
Effects of Malathion Dust and Mexican Tea Powder (Chenopodium ambrosoides) Combinations on the Maize Weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Mostch. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on Maize
The experiment was conducted in the laboratory at the Bako Agricultural Research Center, from January to July 2013. Combinations of different rates of Malathion and Mexican tea powder were evaluated against the maize wee...
Characterization and Phase Transitions of Bi Doped BaTiO3 Ceramics Prepared through Chemical Route
Nano particulate Barium Bismuth Titanate (BaBixTi1-xO3-δ) materials (with x=0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) were prepared through sol-gel chemical route (Pichini method) and the XRD patterns were indexed on the basis of tetragona...
Feed Intake, Digestibility and Growth Performance of Horro Lambs Fed Natural Pasture Hay Supplemented Graded Level of Vernonia amygdalina Leaves and Sorghum Grain Mixture
This study was undertaken with the objectives of evaluating the effect of dried and ground Vernonia (V. amygdalina) leaves and ground sorghum (S. bicolor) grain mixture supplementation on feed intake, digestibility, bo...
Elemental Analysis and Bioactivities of Ripe and Unripe Pericarp of Polyalthia longifolia (Annonaceae)
Polyalthia longifolia (Annonaceae) is an ornamental street tree having several medicinal values. The plant is used in traditional systems of medicine. The present study was conducted with an aim of estimating the conte...