Agricultural and Biological Research

Yield performance of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) under integrated use of blended NPS fertilizer and vermicompost in Horo-Guduru area, Western Ethiopia

Alemayehu Wagari, Zerihun Jalata* and Amsalu Gobena

Potato is a high-yielding potential crop grown for its high nutritional value but constrained with low soil fertility. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of vermin-compost and blended NPS fertilizer rates on potato yield and yield components. Four rates of NPS fertilizers (0, 150, 200, and 250 kg NPS ha^-1) and four rates of vermin-compost (0, 4, 6, and 8 t ha^-1) applied in 4 × 4 factorial combination in randomized complete block design with 3 replications. The result revealed significant influence of NPS fertilizers and vermin-compost on all parameters. The application of blended NPS fertilizer integrated with vermi-compost resulted superior to the application of either NPS fertilizer or vermin-compost alone. Combined application of 8 t ha^-1 vermi-compost with 250 kg ha^-1 blended NPS fertilizer resulted high performance for most of traits including marketable tuber yield (27.4 t ha^-1) and total tuber yield (27.9 t ha^-1).The finding suggests the application of 250 kg ha^-1 blended NPS with 8 t ha^-1 vermi-compost is profitable with a net benefits of about 2761 USD with a 315.9% marginal rate of return. Increasing levels of treatment resulted an increasing yield trend, indicating further study is required to identify the optimum rate of recommendation of both fertilizers.