Abstract

Study on the effect of different bended fertilizers level on malt barley was conducted in 2018 and 2019 cropping season on vertisols of Ofla, Enda-Mehoni and Emba-Alaje districts of Tigray, Ethiopia with the objective of determining the optimum blended fertilization for malt barley production. The experiment contained randomized complete block design with seven level of blended fertilizer (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 kg NPSZnB ha-1) and replicated three times. The analysis of variance for grain yield indicate that effects of NPSZnB blended fertilizer were significance (P<0.05) for grain yield. Significantly more grain yields (3.67 and 4.17 t ha-1) with higher economic return were obtained from application of 150 kg NPSZnB ha-1 in Adigolo and Mekan areas respectively. More over higher grain yield of 3.51 t ha-1 with economic return was obtained at Atsela districts from the application of 100 kg of NPSZnB ha-1 blended fertilizer. Hence application of 150 kg NPSZnBha-1 blended fertilizer are agronomical and economical optimum level for Adigolo and Mekan districts and 100 kg NPSZnBha-1 of blended fertilizer for Atsela and other similar agro ecologies. Even if there is significance effect of blended fertilizer on grain yield of malt barley, the maximum grain yield obtained is not the potential of the variety, hence integration of blended and nitrogen fertilizer is further research directions to boost the grain yield with brewing quality attributes in malt barley.