Abstract

Bread wheat (Triticum asitivum L.) is one of a very important cereal crop produced in central highlands of Ethiopia. However, its yield has been low due to various reasons such as lack of improved varieties and optimal seed rate, improper sowing methods, and poor agronomic practices among others. This in view an experiment was carried out to determine the effect of seed rates and sowing methods on the yield and yield components of bread wheat varieties in Toke Kutaye district, central Ethiopia during 2021 cropping season. The treatments consisted of factorial combination of three levels of seed rates (125, 150 and 175 kg ha-1), two sowing methods (row planting and broadcasting), and three bread wheat varieties (Shorima, Wane and Lemu).The treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design in a factorial arrangement with three replications. The result of the study showed that the three way interaction of varieties, sowing methods and seed rates were significantly (P<0.05) affected the number of kernels per spike and spike length, two-way interaction effect of varieties with sowing methods and varieties with seed rates significantly (P<0.05) affected Dry Biomass, the main effects of varieties, sowing methods and seed rates, two- way interaction and three way interaction were significantly (P<0.05) affected straw yield, thousand grain weight, grain yield and harvest index. The interaction effects of varieties with sowing method and varieties with seed rate, were significantly (P<0.05) affected plant height, and the main effects of varieties had significant (P<0.05) variation on number of days to 50% heading of bread wheat varieties. The highest plant height (92.63cm) was recorded from Lemu variety combined 175 kg ha-1 and total tillers per plant(5.02), highest productive tiller from Shorima varieties, longer spike (8.49 cm and 8.72 cm) and highest number of kernel per spike (59.4 and 60.34) obtained from Shorma and Lemu varieties using at 150 kg ha-1 in row planting respectively. While the maximum dry biomass (11.37 t ha-1) was obtained from 125 kg ha-1 row planting and 150 kg ha-1 with broadcasting. Similarly the maximum straw yield was obtained from the combination of the Wane variety with 125 kg ha-1 seed rates, by row planting method (10.23 t ha-1), highest thousand seed weight (41.33 g) was obtained from the Lemu and Shorima varieties with 125 kg ha-1 with combination of row planting. The higher grain yield (4.17 t ha-1) and harvest Index (43.07%) were recorded from Lemu variety by using 125 kg ha-1 seed rates with row planting method. The maximum net benefit (180,710ETB ha-1) with marginal rate of return 1098.96% was recorded on 125 kg ha-1 seed rate with row planting on Lemu variety. Therefore, based on this study the use of Lemu variety at a rate of 125 kg ha-1 with row planting was recommended for bread wheat production in Toke Kutaye district and similar agro-ecology