Combination of blended fertilizer (NPKSZn) and bio-fertilizer on growth, yield, and yield attributing characters of lentil (lens culinaris medikus)

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-5217518/v1

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Combination of blended fertilizer (NPKSZn) and bio-fertilizer on growth, yield, and yield attributing characters of lentil (lens culinaris medikus)

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5217518/v1

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Tremendous use of chemical fertilizer has led to the distraction of microorganisms in the soil and this causes depletion in essential minerals of the soil. To minimize these environmental and soil damages caused by chemical fertilizers, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of biofertilizer (Rhizobium and Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB)) and blended fertilizer (NPKSZn) on growth, yield, and yield attributing characters of lentil. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with eight treatments viz. T1: Control T2: Rhizobium, T3: PSB inoculation, T4: only NPKSZn, T5: Rhizobium + PSB inoculation, T6: Rhizobium inoculation + NPSZ, T7: PSB inoculation + NPKSZn and T8: Rhizobium + PSB inoculation + NPKSZn. Rhizobium and PSB inoculation were used @ 250 g/10 kg seeds and the recommended dose (100kg ha^− 1 NPKSZn). The results of the present investigation revealed that longest plant height (53.61cm), Maximum nodulation (25.78), pod per plant (111.1), highest grain (1115.8 kg ha^− 1), straw (1713 kg ha^− 1) and biological yield (2829 kg ha-1), highest net benefit (26382.56 ETB ha^− 1) with an acceptable and maximum marginal rate of return (741.6%) was recorded in dual inoculation of seed with Rhizobium and PSB. Therefore inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB enhances the production, and productivity and the seed must be inoculated with dual culture of Rhizobium and PSB along with another package of practices for the crop.

Blended

Biofertilizer

nodule

PSB

Rhizobium

Food legume crops represent an important component of agricultural food crops consumed in developing countries and are considered a vital crop for achieving food and nutritional security for both poor producers and consumers (Abate, 2012). Legumes offer significant potential for Ethiopia to expand its foreign market presence while increasing smallholder income. With little intervention, the food legume market has developed into a 90 million USD industry (IFPRI, 2010). Expanding food legume production provides multiple benefits. First, food legumes are the major source of protein, especially for the majority of the farming community who cannot afford to purchase animal products. Second, food legumes improve soil fertility through fixing atmospheric nitrogen thereby contributing to cost savings. Third, given the growing domestic and international demand, food legumes could be an alternative cash source for smallholder farmers. As a matter of fact, in dietary terms, food legumes complement cereal crops as a source of protein and minerals while agronomically they serve as rotation crops with cereals, reducing soil pathogens and supplying nitrogen to the cereal crop (Ibiene et al., 2012).

Lentil is an important pulse crop grown widely throughout the Indian Subcontinent, Middle East, Northern Africa, Southern Europe, North and South America, Australia, and West Asia (Ford and Taylor, 2003). Ethiopia is also one of the major lentils producing countries in the world and the first in Africa (FAOSTAT, 2006). Lentil is among the most important cool-season food legumes cultivated in rotation with cereal crops in the central highlands of Ethiopia. As a leguminous crop, it utilizes atmospheric nitrogen to meet its partial nitrogen requirement and thus occupies an important place in crop rotation in different parts of the country. It is the most suitable crop for rainfed conditions, because of its deep root system and capability to stand in drought conditions. The yield level of lentils is generally low because they are less cared-for crops and are mostly grown in poor soil without manures and fertilizers. Regular depletion of nutrient resources in soil has led to the emergence of several nutrient deficiencies in many crops including lentils.

Plant nutrients are essential for sustaining crop productivity and crop production, either through the application of chemical fertilizers, organic manures, and biofertilizers or their combination. Tremendous use of chemical fertilizers causes air and groundwater pollution as a result of the eutrophication of water bodies (Youssef and Eissa 2014). Furthermore, chemical fertilizers are in short supply, derived from non-renewable sources of energy, and are costly. Under these constraints, bioinoculants are the route to an alternative strategy and many workers reported the beneficial effects of integrating biofertilizers on crop growth, yield, and maintenance of soil fertility (Pattanayak, Mohanty and Sethy, 2001).

Seed inoculation with effective Rhizobium inoculants is an important practice. Besides, phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) play a major role in the solubilization and uptake of native and soil phosphorous. Rhizobium and phosphate-solubilizing bacteria are known to benefit the crop by increasing the availability of soil nitrogen and phosphorus (El Sayed 1999). With this view, the present study was taken up to study the integrated application of biofertilizers in increasing the growth, nodulation, and productivity of lentils (Lens culinaris Medikus).

2.1. Treatment and experimental design

Field experiment with bio-fertilizers viz. Rhizobium and Phosphorous solubilizing bacteria (PSB) inoculation and blended fertilizer (NPKSZn) on lentils were carried out in three different sites (Atsela, Aynalem, and Mekelle University). The experiments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design using eight treatments and three replications. The treatments were: Control, Rhizobium inoculation, PSB inoculation, NPKSZn, Rhizobium + PSB inoculation, Rhizobium + NPKSZn, PSB + NPKSZn and T8: Rhizobium + PSB + NPKSZn. Biofertilizers (PSB and Rhizobium) were collected from Menagesha Biotechnology Institute. Rhizobium and PSB inoculation were used @ 250 g/10 kg seeds. The blended fertilizer contains NPKSZn with 15,31,8,7 and 2.2 levels applied at planting. Seeds were inoculated with Rhizobium and PSB before sowing and after drying in the shade, sowing was done at 25 cm row-to-row spacing using 45 kg seed/ha. The Lentil variety Chekol was sown on the 20th of June. The plot size was 3 m x 2 m. Each plot and block was separated by a 0.5 m bund and 1 m path respectively. Each plot has 6 rows of 25 cm apart. Biofertilizers were also applied according to the treatments. The wedding was performed 30 and 45 Days after emergence. Before harvesting, two outermost rows on both ends of the plots and 25 cm on both ends of each row were considered as borders.

2.2. Data Collection

Five plants were selected randomly from each plot for recording the growth parameters: plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, grain yield, biological yield, and harvest index at the end of physiological maturity.

The number of Nodules was counted from randomly selected five plants at the flowering stage.

Grain yield

The harvested crop of each plot was weighted in kg and then converted to ha.

Harvest index (HI): HI= (GY/ABG)*100

2.3. Data analysis:

Analysis of variance was performed using the program Genstat version 20 (Payne, 2002). The significance of the treatment effect will be determined using F-test. When analysis of variance showed significant treatment effects, the Duncan test was applied to make comparisons among the means at p < 0.05 level of significance. Correlation among the different agronomic traits was also performed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. The graph was done using Minitab version 19

2.4. Partial Budget Analysis

Yield from experimental plots was adjusted downward by 15%, i.e. 10% for management difference and 5% for plot size differences, to reflect the difference between the experimental yield and the yield that farmers could expect from the same treatment. Accordingly, the mean grain yields for NPKSZn, Rhizobium, and PSB inoculation treatment combinations were subjected to a discrete partial budget analysis using the procedures outlined by Shah et al. 2011. To estimate economic parameters, the variable cost of NPKSZn (ETB 28.8 kg^− 1), Rhizobium, and PSB inoculants (ETB 180 kg^− 1) were recorded at the time of planting. The price of the current lentil grain was (ETB 32 kg-1). The price of blended fertilizer (NPKSZn) and biofertilizer (Rhizobium and PSB) inoculants were taken from Agricultural Inputs Supply Enterprise and Menagesha Biotech Industry PLC at the time of planting, respectively.

Gross field benefit = Adjusted Yield X Field Price

Net Benefit = Gross income –total variable cost (Shah et al 2011)

$$\:MRR\:\left(\%\right)=\frac{\text{M}\text{a}\text{r}\text{i}\text{g}\text{i}\text{n}\text{a}\text{l}\:\text{i}\text{n}\text{c}\text{r}\text{e}\text{a}\text{s}\text{e}\:\text{i}\text{n}\:\text{n}\text{e}\text{t}\:\text{b}\text{e}\text{n}\text{e}\text{f}\text{i}\text{t}\text{l}}{\text{M}\text{a}\text{r}\text{i}\text{g}\text{i}\text{n}\text{a}\text{l}\:\text{i}\text{n}\text{c}\text{r}\text{e}\text{a}\text{s}\text{e}\:\text{i}\text{n}\:\text{c}\text{o}\text{s}\text{t}}\:\:X\:100$$

The average open market price (Birr kg^− 1) for lentil crops and the official price of blended fertilizer from Alage Union were used for analysis.

The ANOVA results of the present investigation (Table 1) showed that the application of bio-fertilizers significantly (P < 0.01) improved all the growth characters over control. A significant difference was observed among the locations for all studied traits except for thousand seed weight. Interaction between the different biofertilizers and location was also significant (p < 0.01) for the number of pods per plant, grain, straw, and biological yield of lentil.

Table 1

mean square for growth, yield, and yield-related traits of maize
Source of variation	d.f.	PH	NPPP	NN	SPP	TSW	GY	SY
Block	2	2.84	83.01	53.7	0.026	4.129	5821.7	14712
Treatment	7	39.93^**	712.4^**	114.3^**	0.51^**	27.89^**	201839.4^**	221331^**
Location	2	172.36^**	465.6^**	29.8^**	0.17^**	12.059^ns	75509.0^**	8895^**
Treatment.Location	14	0.54^ns	28.9^**	1.01^ns	0.01^ns	5.906^ns	2757.6^**	4567^**
Residual	46	0.5232	5.507	1.389	0.01	5.589	626.9	1232

Plant height (PH), Pod per plant (NPP), Number of nodules (NN) Seed per pod (SPP), thousand seed weight(TSW), Grain yield(GY), and straw yield (SY)

Plant height

The result for plant height illustrated in Table 2 demonstrated that a significant (P < 0.01) difference was obtained among the different treatments. Dual inoculation of Rhizobium and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) significantly increased plant height over their sole application and control. The longest plant height (53.61 cm) was measured in seeds inoculated with Rhizobium + PSB along with the recommended dose of NPKSZn followed by Rhizobium + PSB (50.64cm) and Rhizobium + NPKSZn (50.38 cm). The shortest plant height (46.56 cm) was recorded in the control. The highest plant height in the biofertilizer-treated plot might be attributed to better nourishment causes positive effects such as enhanced photosynthesis rate, absorption, cell division, and vegetative growth. This is because Rhizobium and PSB inoculants boosted N fixation and increased P and S uptake in the soil, which may subsidize to improved vegetative growth of lentils. The present work is in agreement with the findings of Endalkachew et al. (2016) who reported an increase in the plant height of lentils in response to inoculation with rhizobium strain. These results are also in agreement with the findings of Singh et al., (2014). A similar result was also found by Prasad et al. (2002) and Chandra and Pareek, (2007) in lentils due to the synergistic effect of Rhizobium + PSB + PGPR recorded significantly more mean plant height.

A similar trend was also obtained for the number of pods per plant, number of nodules, and seeds per pod in which the highest number of pods per plant (111.11), number of nodules (25.78), and seeds per pod (1.789) were recorded with treatment in which Rhizobium + PSB along with 100% recommended dose of NPKSZn were inoculated followed by the results produced by inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB. While the lowest number of pods per plant (84.11), number of nodules (15), and seeds per pod (1.078) were obtained in the control. Dual inoculation of seed with Rhizobium and PSB increased the number of the nodules by 57.8% and 33.9% over the control and application recommended dose of NPKSZn respectively. The results indicated that inoculation of lentil seeds by Rhizobium and PSB enhanced the growth and nodulation of lentil crops than un-inoculated treatments in all locations. Among the locations significant highest plant height (52.64 cm), number of pods per plant (103.5), seed per pod (1.52), and number of nodules (22.12) was recorded at Alage followed by Mekelle University.

The positive effect of Rhizobium and PSB inoculation may have formed favorable soil conditions for the growth and development of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and promote the utilization of high quantities of nutrients through their well-developed root system for better nodules (Scherer et al., 2006). Bejandi et al. (2012) reported that seed inoculation with Rhizobium cicerea produced a significantly higher nodule number of active nodules per plant than the control.

The enhancement in plant growth and biomass production might be due to an increased rate of photosynthesis and higher metabolic activities, mobilization of some movable forms of important nutrients, production of growth-promoting substances like gibberellic acid, indole acetic acid and dihydrozeatin (Aguilar-piedras et al., 2008). Similarly, Akhtar et al. (2018) reported that the use of Rhizobium spp. Resulted in a greater increase in plant growth, number of pods, and nodulation.

Table 2

The main effect of biofertilizer and location on growth yield and yield component of lentil
Treatment	PH	NPPP	NN	SPP	TSW	Gy(kg/ha)	StrY (kg/ha)	By(kg/ha)
Rzm + PSB + NPKSZn	53.61^a	111.11^a	25.78^a	1.789^a	26.01^a	1115.8^a	1713^a	2829^a
Rzm + PSB	50.64^b	106.00^b	23.67^b	1.667^b	25.47^ab	1027.3^b	1681^a	2708^b
Rzm + NPKSZN	50.38^b	105.22^b	23.78^b	1.622^b	25.22^ab	962.2^c	1628^b	2590^c
PSB + NPKSZn	49.64^c	102.44^c	21.67^c	1.489^c	24.90^ab	909.7^d	1583^c	2492^d
Rzm	49.19^cd	99.56^d	22.00^c	1.389^d	24.47^ab	866.9^e	1516^d	2382^e
PSB	48.61^d	95.11^e	19.33^d	1.333^d	23.87^bc	794.1^f	1422^e	2216^f
NPKSZn	47.90^e	90.56^f	17.67^e	1.233^e	23.02^bc	738.7^g	1373^f	2111^g
Control	46.56^f	84.11^g	15.00^f	1.078^f	21.44^c	668.4^h	1254^g	1922^h
LSD	0.6864	2.227	1.118	0.067	2.243	23.76	33.30	43.71
CV%	1.5	2.4	5.6	4.9	9.8	2.8	2.3	1.9
P-value	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01
Location
Alage	52.64^a	103.50^a	22.12^a	1.521^a	24.55^a	950.1^a	1531^a	2481^a
Mu	48.37^b	99.58^b	21.29^b	1.471^b	24.31^a	851.2^b	1533^a	2385^b
Aynalem	47.69^c	94.71^c	19.92^c	1.358^c	24.05^a	854.8^b	1499^b	2354^c
LSD	0.4203	1.364	0.685	0.041	1.374	14.55	20.39	26.77
P-value	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	< 0.01	0.127	< 0.01	0.002	< 0.01

Plant height (PH), Pod per plant (NPPP), Number of nodules (NN) Seed per pod (SPP), thousand seed weight(TSW), Grain yield(GY) straw yield (SY), Biological yield (BY), least significant difference (LSD),

Seeds inoculated with Rhizobium + PSB along with a 100% recommended dose of NPKSZn increased the number of seeds per plant by 65.9% and 45.1% over control and application of the recommended dose of NPKSZn respectively. Dual inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB increased the number of seeds per plant by 20% and 25% over sole inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB respectively (Table 2). The highest number of seeds per plant in dual inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB could be because Rhizobium and PSB inoculation adequately supply N and P for the plant and resulted in increased chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthetic products.

Behl et al. (2007) and Sala et al. (2008) reported significant improvement in crop production with inoculation of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria, and AM fungi. Inoculation of the crop with beneficial microorganisms can enhance atmospheric nitrogen fixation, decompose organic wastes and residues, improve soil properties, enhance nutrient cycling, and produce bioactive compounds such as vitamins, hormones, and enzymes which stimulate plant growth (Wu et al. 2006). Similar results have also been reported by Sen Gupta et al. (2002) in the growth parameters of tomatoes due to concomitant inoculation of both the biological-nitrogen fixers.

3.1. Grain yield and straw yield of lentil

Biofertilizer inoculation individually as well as in combination significantly increased the thousand seed weight, Grain yield, and straw yield. The highest thousand seed weight (26.01 g) was obtained in dual inoculation of Rhizobium + PSB along with 100% recommended dose of blended fertilizer NPKSZn which was statistically at par with dual application of Rhizobium + PSB, Rhizobium + NPKSZN, PSB + NPKSZn and sole inoculation of Rhizobium (Table 2). Whereas the lowest thousand seed weight (21.44 g) was recorded at control followed by the application of NPKSZN. Rhizobium + PSB inoculation significantly increased thousand seed weight by 18.79% and 12.13% over control and application respectively.

Regarding the seed yield inoculation of biofertilizer significantly (p < 0.01) increased the seed yield of lentils over control and application NPKSZn as blended fertilizer. A significantly higher seed yield (1115.8 kg ha^− 1) was harvested with dual inoculation of Rhizobium + PSB along with a 100% recommended dose of NPKSZn. The lowest seed yield (668.4 kg ha⁻1) was recorded in control followed by the application of NPKSZn. Combined inoculation of Rhizobium + PSB produced 18.50, 29.36, 39.06, and 53.69% higher yields than sole inoculation of Rhizobium, PSB, application of NPKSZn, and control respectively. Similarly, maximum straw yield (1713 kg ha^− 1) and biological yield (2829 kg ha^− 1) were recorded with the treatment Rhizobium + PSB along with 100% recommended dose of NPKSZn, which was statistically at par with the treatments Rhizobium + PSB and significantly superior over the rest of the treatments. The lowest straw yield (1254 kg ha^− 1) and biological yield (1922 kg ha^− 1was recorded in control.

The highest grain yield of lentils might be due to improvement in the efficiency and utilization of native as well as applied nutrients. The increase in yield attributes might be mainly due to an increase in the photosynthesis activity of leaves, translocation of photosynthates from source to sink, and nutrient uptake. These results corroborate with the finding of Hossain et al., (2010). These results also corroborate with the findings of Hafeez et al., (2000) and Shah et al., (2000). Kumar and Chandra (2008) also observed that inoculation of lentil seeds by PSB increased significantly the grain (23.5%) and straw yield (14.0%) of lentils.

Several authors reported that increment in grain yield, the most important character regarding the economic value of the crop, might be due to improvement in various parameters like plant height, branches plant, pod per plant, and seed per pod (Singh et al., 2011; Biswas et al., 2015 and Rasheed et al., 2010). Thus, seed inoculation with Rhizobium + PSB + PGPR proved to be an effective technique in improving the growth, nodulation, and productivity of lentils. Rajaee et al. (2007) also reported that free-living nitrogen-fixing microorganisms increase root development, water content, and mineral uptake, and produce plant hormones which might be responsible for the enhancement of growth parameters of plants. Similarly, Malik et al. (2005) observed significant improvement in grain yield and chlorophyll content. A similar result was also obtained by Gunasekaran et al. (2004), who reported that the combination of all three organisms (Rhizobium + PGPR + PSB) recorded the maximum nodules, plant biomass, and grain yield (760 kg ha–1) which was 61.0% higher than individual inoculation of Rhizobium alone.

The interaction effect for the pod per plant, grain, straw, and biological yield presented in Table 3 demonstrated that the highest number of pod per plant (114), grain (1239 kg ha^− 1), straw (1745 kg ha^− 1), and biological yield 2984 kg ha^− 1) was recorded with the dual inoculation of rhizobium + PSB along with 100% recommended dose of NPKSZn. The lowest of number pods per plant (76.3) was obtained in control treatment at Aynalem, while the lowest grain yield (647 kg ha^− 1) was harvested in control at Mekelle University however the lowest straw (1224 kg ha^− 1) and biological yield 1910 kg ha^− 1) was harvested in control at the large experimental site.

Table 3

Interaction effect of biofertilizer and growing location on yield and yield-related traits of lentil
Treatment	GY (kg/ha)			StrY (kg/ha)			NPPP			BY (Kg/ha)
Treatment	Alage	Ay/m	Mu	Alage	Ay/m	Mu	Alage	Ay/m	Mu	Alage	Ay/m	Mu
Control	687^lm	671^lm	647^m	1224^l	1248^kl	1289^jk	94.7^jk	76.3ⁿ	81.3^m	1910^o	1920^o	1936^o
NPKSZn	787k	716 ^l	713^l	1312^j	1379ⁱ	1428^ghi	97.7^ij	83.0^m	91.0^kl	2098ⁿ	2095ⁿ	2142^mn
PSB	862^hij	763 ^k	757^k	1389ⁱ	1424^hi	1454^gh	100.7^fghi	88.7^l	96.0^j	2251^L	2187^lm	2211^lm
PSB + NPKSZn	952^def	890^gh	889^ghi	1632^cd	1536^ef	1581^de	104.7^cdef	98.3^hij	104.3^cdef	2582^efg	2425^ij	2470^hi
Rzm	914^fg	845^hij	842^j	1544^ef	1489^fg	1515^f	103.0^defg	95.3^j	100.3^ghi	2458^hi	2334^k	2356^jk
Rzm + NPKSZN	1031^c	931^fg	925^fg	1686^abc	1582^de	1615^d	107^bcd	102.3^efgh	106.3^cde	2717^cd	2513^gh	2540^fgh
Rzm + PSB	1131^b	975^de	976^d	1718^a	1644^bcd	1680^abc	106.3^cde	105.0^cdef	106.7^bcde	2849^b	2619^ef	2656^de
Rzm + PSB + NPKSZn	1239^a	1047^c	1061^c	1745^a	1690^abc	1705^ab	114.0^a	108.7^bc	110.7^ab	2984^a	2737^c	2766^c
LSD	41.15			57.68			3.857			75.71
CV	2.8			2.3			2.4			1.9

GY = Grain yield; StrY = Straw yield; NPPP = Number of pod per plant; BY = Biological Yield

Partial Budget Analysis

According to the results of partial budget analysis, the highest net benefit was obtained from the application of Rhizobium and PSB inoculation without NPKSZn fertilization (ETB 26382.56 ha-1) followed by dual inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB along with the application of NPKSZn (ETB 25109.76 ha-1) and Rhizobium inoculation (ETB 22199.68 ha-1) (Table 4). As compared to the control, inoculation of seed with Rhizobium and PSB; Rhizobium and PSB along with the application of NPKSZn; sole inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB increased the net benefit by 48.38%, 41.22%, and 24.85% respectively (Table 4).

Table 4

Partial budget analysis for an experiment on different biofertilizer combinations of lentil
Treatments	Average lentil yield (kg/ha)	Adjusted lentil yield (kg/ha)	Gross field benefits (ETB/ha)	Total variable cost (ETB/ha)	Net Benefit (ETB/ha)	Dominance analysis
Rzm + PSB + NPKSZn	1115.8	948.43	30349.8	5240	25109.76	Non dominated
Rzm + PSB	1027.3	873.205	27942.6	1560	26382.56	Non dominated
Rzm + NPKSZN	962.2	817.87	26171.8	4260	21911.84	Non dominated
PSB + NPKSZn	909.7	773.245	24743.8	4260	20483.84	Non dominated
Rzm	866.9	736.865	23579.7	1380	22199.68	Non dominated
PSB	794.1	674.985	21599.5	1380	20219.52	Non dominated
NPKSZn	738.7	627.895	20092.6	3680	16412.6	Dominated
Control	668.4	568.14	18180.5	400	17780.48	Non dominated

3.2. Marginal Rate of Return Analysis (MRRA)

Based on the dominance analysis all the treatments except the application of NPKSZn fertilizer were included for further Marginal Rate of Return analysis (Table 5). For a treatment to be considered a worthwhile option for farmers, the marginal rates of return (MRR) need to be at least between 50% and 100% Shah et al 2011. Thus, to draw recommendations from marginal analysis in this study, a 100% return to the investment is a reasonable minimum acceptable rate of return for farmers in the study area. Accordingly, the marginal rate of return for the combination of PSB and NPKSZn was 70% which is within the acceptable range.

From the other treatment dual inoculation of Rhizobium and PSB (741.6% MRR) was a superior rewarding treatment combination followed by seed inoculated with Rhizobium (450.9%), PSB (248.9%) and a combination of Rhizobium and PSB along with the application of NPKSZn (151.4%). This implies that for Birr 1.0 investment in lentil production, the producer can get Birr 74, 45, 24.9, and 15 respectively. Therefore, farmers in Atsela and similar agroecology conditions use Rhizobium and PSB inoculants to produce higher yields and high rates of return.

Table 5

Marginal rate of return based on the grain yield and current price of lentil
Treatments	Adjusted lentil yield (kg/ha)	Total variable cost (ETB/ha)	Net Benefit (ETB/ha)	MRR
Rzm + PSB + NPKSZn	948.43	5240	25109.76	151.4
Rzm + PSB	873.205	1560	26382.56	741.6
Rzm + NPKSZN	817.87	4260	21911.84	107.0
PSB + NPKSZn	773.245	4260	20483.84	70.0
Rzm	736.865	1380	22199.68	450.9
PSB	674.985	1380	20219.52	248.9
Control	568.14	400	17780.48

The results of the present investigation revealed the effect of biofertilizers significantly affected the active number of nodules per plant, test weight of seeds, grain yields, and straw yield of the lentil crop. Maximum nodulation, highest test weight, highest grain, and straw yield were noticed in the integrated use of Rhizobium + PSB along with the application of NPKSZn fallow followed inoculation of PSB + Rhizobium, whereas minimum nodulation, lowest test weight, least grain, and straw yield was noticed in the un-inoculated field followed by application chemical fertilizer (NPKSZn). The highest net benefit and marginal rate of return were recorded in dual inoculation of seed with Rhizobium and PSB. Therefore it was concluded that the judicial use of Rhizobium, PSB, and NPKSZn enhances the production, productivity, and income per unit area. From the present study it can be recommended that for better crop growth and productivity of lentils, the seed must be inoculated with a dual culture of Rhizobium and PSB and the crop must be fertilized with the recommended dose of NPKSZn.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that there are no financial or non-financial competing interests regarding the publication of this article.

Ethics approval

Not applicable

Consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Clinical trial number

Not applicable

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other kinds of support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

Author Contribution

Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation; Writing – original draft, Mohammed Mossa; Writing – review & editing, Daniel Gebrekidan, Melaku Kasegn and Etsay Mesele

Data Availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the manuscript.

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Combination of blended fertilizer (NPKSZn) and bio-fertilizer on growth, yield, and yield attributing characters of lentil (lens culinaris medikus)

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Abstract

1. INTRODUCTION

2. MATERIAL and METHODS

2.1. Treatment and experimental design

2.2. Data Collection

2.3. Data analysis:

2.4. Partial Budget Analysis

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Grain yield and straw yield of lentil

3.2. Marginal Rate of Return Analysis (MRRA)

4. Conclusion and recommendation

Declarations

Competing Interests

Ethics approval

Clinical trial number

Funding

Author Contribution

Data Availability

References

Additional Declarations

Status:

Version 1