Original Research Article
Year: 2014 | Month: 12 | Volume: 1 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 01-07
Determination of Seed Rate and Inter Row Spacing for Finger Millet Production (Eleusine Coracana Gaertn.)in North Western Ethiopia
Yayeh Bitew, Fekremariam Asargew
Agronomist, Adet Agricultural Research Centre, Amhara Agricultural Research Institute, P .O. Box 08, Bahir Dare, Ethiopia.
ABSTRACT
Finger millet is one of the main crops grown in Northwestern Ethiopia. Broadcasting is the dominant planting method of finger millet production in the country. An experiment was conducted on the effect of seed rate and row spacing on the growth, yield and yield component of finger millet at Adete and Finoteselam research station during 2011-2012 cropping seasons. Four seed rates (10, 15, 20 and 25 kg/ha) and four row spacing (20, 30, 40 and 50 cm) were factorially combined. The experimental design was a completely randomized block with three replications. JMP5-SAS, computer software was used to compute the analysis of variance. Seed rate did not significantly affect plant height, number of heads, number of fingers, lodging, blast diseases, total dry biomass and grain yield of finger millet. Similarly, interaction between seed rate and row spacing had not significant effect on the yield and yield component of finger millet. On the other hand, row spacing significantly affect lodging and grain yield of finger millet. Thus, due to relative increment in yield components and reduction of lodging and blast diseases infestation, highest grain yield was recorded when finger millet was planted at 30 cm row spacing. Planting finger millet at the lowest seed rate (10kg/ha) at 30 cm row spacing gave the optimum grain yield of finger millet. However, when the farmers consider the straw yield as business, partial budget analysis showed that at the current cost of the grain and straw yield of finger millet, planting 25 kg/ha and 20 kg/ha seed rate of finger millet in 30 cm row spacing gave the first and second highest net benefit.
Key words: Finger millet, seed rate, row spacing.