Abstract:
Soil fertility decline is considered as one of the major causes for resulting in reduced yield of potato production in
Abelo area Masha district Sheka zone of south-western Ethiopia. Hence, a field experiment was conducted in
Belgnand Meher season, in Abelo area, Masha district south-western Ethiopia, to investigate the effect of combined
use of application of Cattle Manure (CM) with mineral NP on growth, yield components, yield, the economics of
potato, and on selected soil physio-chemical characteristics. The treatments comprised combinations of three rates
(2.5,5, 7.5 tha-1) of CM with 25%, 50% and 75% of recommended rates of mineral NP, respectively. In addition,
100% recommended rate of mineral NP (165 kg N ha-1 and 137 kg P2O5 ha-1) and zero rates were used for
comparison. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results
revealed that applying 7.5 tha-1 CM combined with 75% mineral NP gave significantly. the highest marketable tuber
numberhill-1(9.72 and 8.7064) and total tuber number hill-1(13.29 and 11.076) and marketable tuber yield (27.491
and 28.700 kg ha-1) and total tuber yield (4020 and 34221) of potato in Belg and Meher season, respectively. The
application of 7.5 tha-1 CM in combination with 75% mineral NP has increased tuber yield by 55.9% and 43.45% in
Belg and by 51.19%, and 36.64% in Meher over the control and the application of 100% recommended rate of NP
fertilizers, respectively. Similarly, the economic evaluation showed that the application of 7.5 ha-1 CM plus 75%
mineral NP offered the highest net return of 91704.60 Birr ha-1 in Belg and 119887 Birr ha-1 in Meher season.
Therefore, it can be concluded that, the use of combined application of CM (7.5 t ha-1) together with 75% of
recommended rates of mineral NP (123.75 kg N ha-1 and 103.05 kg P2O5 ha-1) can significantly increase potato
yield, gave a high economic return and improve soil health.
