Yield and lodging response of tef [ Eragrostis tef (Zucc) trotter] varieties to nitrogen and silicon application rates

Mekonnen Gebru; Getachew Alemayehu; Yayeh Bitew

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22576

Yield and lodging response of tef [ Eragrostis tef (Zucc) trotter] varieties to nitrogen and silicon application rates

Heliyon. 2023 Nov 28;9(12):e22576. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22576. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Mekonnen Gebru^{1

2}, Getachew Alemayehu², Yayeh Bitew³

Affiliations

¹ Wolkite University, Horticulture Department, P.O.Box 07, Wolkite, Ethiopia.
² Bahir Dar University, Plant Sciences, Bahir Dar, Amhara, Ethiopia, P.O. Box 79.
³ Bahir Dar University, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Plant Sciences, P.O. Box 5501, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Lodging, poor crop varieties and nitrogen management are among the main tef cultivation problems in acidic soils of northwestern Ethiopia. Though Si has been shown to improve crop yield and lodging resistance, knowledge of its effect on tef, along genotypes and nitrogen, is yet to be uncovered. Therefore, a 4 × 2 × 2 factorial field experiment was conducted on fixed experimental plot at the Koga irrigation scheme to assess yield and lodging responses of tef varieties to nitrogen and silicon fertilizer rates during two consecutive years of 2021 and 2022. The experiment comprised four nitrogen levels: 0 (N1), 23 (N2), 46 (N3), and 92 kg N ha^-1(N4), two Si levels: 0 (Si1) and 485 (Si2) kg ha^-1, and two improved varieties: Hiber-1 (V1) and Quncho (V2) treatment combinations, which were replicated four times. Results showed that regardless of silicon supply and variety, nitrogen had a significant effect (p < .0001) on agronomic attributes of tef grain yield, biomass yield, harvest index, chlorophyll content, plant height, panicle length, leaf area index, and the number of plants m^-2 over the two years. Application of N4, N3, and N2 improved grain yield by 166.9, 126.2, and 75.2 % over N1, respectively. The harvest index showed a declining trend with nitrogen rates, which ranged from 36.1 to 26.5 %. Hiber-1 showed a significantly (p < .01) higher panicle length than Quncho. The interaction of nitrogen, silicon, and variety significantly (p < .001) affected lodging index, with a minimum lodging index of 0 % from V1Si1N1 and a maximum lodging index (71.9 %) from V2Si1N4. Maximum net return (2552.6 USD) was obtained from V1Si1N4, while the marginal rate of return (6961.7 %) from V1Si1N3. Therefore, it can be concluded that genotype and optimum nitrogen can maximize yield and lodging resistance of tef, while silicon in the form of carbonized rice husk results no significant effect on tef lodging.

Keywords: Chlorophyll content; Leaf area index; Lodging index; Net return; Tef yield.