Abstract            Volume:8  Issue-12  Year-2020         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Field experiments were carried out at Kersa district on farmers’ fields over three cropping seasons (2017/18,2018/19 and 2019/20).This study aimed to determine optimum rates of phosphorus fertilizers on the growth and yield of three soybean varieties in Kersa district, Jimma Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia. The experiments consisted of five P fertilizer rates (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 kg P ha^-1) and three soybean varieties (Afgat, Clark 63-K and SCS-1) arranged in factorial randomized complete block design and replicated three times. The phosphorus rates and soybean varieties were significantly (P=0.05) influenced most of yield and yield components and growth parameters of soybean. Increase in phosphorus rates also increased plant height, number of pods per plant, hundred seed weight, grain yield, bio-mass yield and harvest index of soybean. The interaction effect of phosphorus rates and soybean variety also significantly (P = 0.05) affected yield and yield components of soybean. Regarding the phosphorus rates, maximum responses were obtained at rate of 69 kg phosphorus ha^-1 for plant height (65.87cm), number of pods per plant (40.22), hundred seed weight (19.2 g), above ground dry bio-mass (13193.9kg), grain yield (3670.81kg) and harvest index (0.31).Considering the interaction between phosphorus rates and varieties, application of 30 kg of phosphorus ha^-1 on variety Clark-63K led to production of soybean yield and yield components followed by SCS-1 under the agro-ecology of Kersa district from among the five phosphorus rates and three soybean varieties The application of 150 kg ha^-1 TSP and 100kg of urea ha^-1 was found to be the most appropriate levels of phosphorus and nitrogen for maximum productivity of soybean. Therefore, applying of fertilizer and liming materials in acidic soil maximize the availability of nutrients especially phosphorus in the soil, which very important for better performance of crops. In general liming is important in the study area; this is because of very strong acidity and low values of some chemical properties of the soil. The application of phosphorus fertilizer increased yields of soybean.

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