Validation of Best Practice for Barley Production on Acid Soils of Central and Western Highland of Ethiopia: Effect of Liming on Ameliorating Soil Acidity and Soil P - Availability

A field experiment was conducted during 2018 cropping season at two locations (Welmera and Jeldu) in the central and western part of Ethiopia to verify the effect of lime in ameliorating soil acidity, P availability and barley productivity. Two barley production practices: 1.5 * EA (t/ha) of lime with 69 kg/ha P 2 O 5 and a farmer’s practice with no lime as a control were tested using a two plot design approach with 9 replication using farmers as replicates. Laboratory soil analytical results of both study areas showed that the soils are strongly acidic in reaction with low P content. Application of lime resulted in significant changes in some chemical properties of the soils in both locations. Soil acidity components such as soil pH, Exchangeable acidity, and Exchangeable Al were improved due to the application of lime and maximum and minimum values of these parameters were recorded. Availability of P, growth parameters, yield and yield components were significantly increased with application of lime at the two locations. Dry biomass weight increment up to 79.4% and grain yield advantage of 40% was recorded due to liming at Rob Gebeya kebele of welmera district. Similarly, 233%, 205% and 17.3% rise was observed in dry biomass, grain yield and 1000 seed weight over the conventional farmer’s practice/control/ respectively at Ento dale and shikute kebele of Jeldu district. According to the result of the current study, application of lime to acid soils led to slightly higher pH, significant decrease in Exchangeable acidity and a marked development in available soil phosphorus level as related to the non amended soil confirming and demonstrating the fact that applying lime in acidic soil maximize the availability of nutrients especially phosphorus in the soil which is very important for better performance of crops. Keywords: Soil acidity, Element toxicity, Nutrient availability, Crop productivity. DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-14-01 Publication date :July 31 st 2019