Abstract:
Abstract
The common bean is one of Ethiopia’s most economically important legumes. However, its national average yield remains lower than
the potential yield obtained at research stations. This is because of low soil fertility, inappropriate plant spacing, disease and insect
pest problems. As a result, this experiment was carried out during 2021 to investigate the impact of blended NPS fertilizer rates and
spacing between crops on the growth and yield of common bean and to analyze the economic feasibility of blended NPS rates with
common bean spacing. A four-factorial combination of mixed NPS levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha-1) and three-row spacing (30, 40, and
50 cm) were used in a three-replicate randomized complete block design. After collecting that plant phenology, growth, yield, and yield
attribute parameters were analyzed by using SAS version 9.3 software. The results revealed significant differences for the main effect
of the NPS blended fertilizer, row spacings, and their interaction on most of the common bean’s measured phenological, growth, yield,
and yield attributes. However, neither the main effect nor the interaction effects affected seedling emergence. The combined use of
150 kg of mixed NPS ha-1 with a row spacing of 40 cm resulted in a higher grain yield (2.5 t ha-1) and maximum net benefit (41775 ETB
ha-1). Hence, it can be established that earlier mentioned NPS fertilizer rate and row spacing is a better choice for farmers in the area
and similar agro-ecologies in order to achieve the highest possible grain yield and a higher net return.
