Abstract:
Field experiment was conducted at Duka, Konta district to determine the effect of
Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) fertilizers on growth, yield and yield components
of black cumin. Five levels of N (0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 kg haG1
in the form of urea)
and three levels of P (0, 20, 40 kg haG1
in the form of TSP), arranged in RCB design
with three replications. Results indicated that interaction of N and P highly
significantly (p<0.01) influenced the different growth and yield parameters except
for 1000 seed weight. The highest seed yield (1336.7 kg haG1
was obtained from
60/40 kg N P haG1
. Highest number of pods per plant (45.9) was obtained from
60 kg N haG1
and 40 kg P haG1
interactions. The tallest plants (72.5 cm) were
measured o plots fertilized at the rate of 60/40 kg N PhaG1
. The highest number of
branches (46.1) was obtained from the interaction effect of 60/40 kg N P haG1
. The
highest numbers of seeds per pod (91.6) was achieved at treatment combination of
60/40 kg N P haG1
followed by 88.4 seeds by the treatment combination of
60/20 kg N P haG1
. The highest harvest index (20.8%) was obtained from the
treatment that received 60/40 kg NP followed by 20.5%, which received 45/20 kg,
N P haG1
interactions and the lowest harvest index (15.1%) was recorded from the
treatment that received 15 and 0 kg NP interaction. The longest days to 50%
flowering (86.7 days) were observed for the treatment that received 60/40 kg N P
haG1
. However, the shortest flowering days (75.5) days were for the control
treatment. Partial budget analysis has shown that two treatment combinations of
(NP haG1
) were found to be economically viable with marginal rate of revenue
beyond the minimum acceptable level (150%). The highest MRR (%) was obtained
with the interaction effect of 45/40 kg NP haG1
with marginal rate of revenue
(1272.2%) for net benefit 15254.1 birr, followed by the interaction effect of
15/20 kg NP haG1
with marginal rate of revenue (485%) for net benefit 10325 birr
over the control with a net benefit 8595.0 birr. Since the experiment was conducted
at one place and only for one cropping season, it will not be appropriate to arrive
at a strong recommendation. However, as a recommendation, growers can be
advised to use a combination of 45/40 kg NP haG1
followed by 15/20 Kg N P2O5
haG1
for black cumin production in the area.
