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Open Access Journal of Agricultural Research Research Article 13 min read

Inter Row Spacing and Seed Rate Effect on Finger Millet (Eleusine Coracana (L.) Production at Merb Lekhe District, Ethiopia

Nigus C* and Melese B*
* Corresponding author
ISSN: 2474-8846  10.23880/oajar-16000169  Received: June 02, 2018  Published: June 20, 2018
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Keywords
Finger millet Inter row spacing Seed rate Interaction and split plot design
Abstract

Background and objective: Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.ssp. coracana), is an important crop grown in low input farming systems by resource poor farmers in eastern and southern Africa. One of the factors contributing to low yield of finger millet is poor crop management practices such as, seed rate, spacing and optimum fertilizer rate. The main objective of the present study was to determine the appropriate inter row spacing and seed rate. Methodology: The experiment was conducted in 2014 a main cropping season at Merblekhe district at central zone of Tigray, Ethiopia, substation of Axum agricultural Research center. The experimental design was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The main plot was spacing whereas, subplot were the seed rate. Result: Analysis of variance revealed significant difference (P ≤ 0.01) due to the interaction effect of spacing and seed rate on the means of plant height, number of productive tillers and biomass yield whereas, a significant difference(P ≤ 0.05) for grain yield. However, there is no statically significance difference at number of fingers and length of fingers at (P ≤ 0.05).The higher grain yield and biomass yield was recorded from the interaction effect of 30cm spacing with 15kg/ha (2214.4kg/ha) and (12889kg/ha) respectively. Conclusion: Results of study revealed that the production and productivity of finger millet in Merblekhe district and similar agro ecology, the appropriate inter row and seed rate is the interaction of 30cm with 15kg/ha. This is one year data; further working on this trial is necessary recommendation of the present study.

Introduction

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn. ssp. coracana), is the second most widely grown millets on the continent of Africa and it is an important crop grown in low input farming systems by resource poor farmers in eastern and southern Africa [1]. This is indigenous to the highlands of Uganda and Ethiopia, finger millet is widely produced by small scale landholders and consumed locally [2]. It is well adapted to heat, drought and poor soil stress that prevail in marginal and degraded soils [3]. It is valued for nutrition, malt, good storability, income and other uses animal feeds (unpublished). In Ethiopia, finger millet occupies 456,171.54hawith the productivity of 22.30 qt/ha while in Tigray Regional occupies 86,613.23 ha coverage and 22.63 qt/ha of productivity [4].

Some of the factors contributing to low yield of finger millet are lack of high yielding cultivars, moisture stress, lodging effect, threshing, diseases and low fertility and poor crop management practices such as fertilizer rate, seed rate and spacing. Strengthen the seed production and delivery systems for improved varieties also the most bottleneck of the in this crop on the small scale farmers [5]. The appropriate row spacing and seed rate are most important management factor affecting the agronomic characteristics of wheat [6]. Suitable combination of seed rate and row spacing could increase grain yield of wheat [7]. Therefore, testing the optimum spacing and seed rate will be enhancing the finger millet production and productivity of water deficit areas of the region. Recommended seeding rates differ based on cultivar and seed size, location, soil moisture, and environmental conditions such as rainfall and temperature [8].

Since, determining the optimum spacing and seed rate has an importance; on the growth of the plant in access of nutrients, competition with weeds, access available moisture and use of sunlight. As the inter row spacing wider there was increment on both plant height and tiller number per plant. The inter row spacing of 45 cm or the seed rate of 10 kg /hais advisable and could be appropriate for finger millet production [9]. Thus, to increase the productivity of finger millet in areas faced with erratic rainfall, selection of early maturing genotypes and application of appropriate agronomic management is mandatory. This implies that, identification of appropriate inter row spacing and seed rate was the not time allowable conditions for this area. Therefore, the main objective of the present study was to determine the appropriate inter row spacing and seed rate of finger millet production.

Materials and Methods

The experiment was conducted in 2014 a main cropping season at Merblekhe district at central zone of Tigray, Ethiopia, substation of Axum agricultural Research center. The site geographical situated at latitude of 14022.87’ north and longitude of 0380 48.101’ east with altitude of 1395masl.The experimental design was laid out in split plot design with three replications and with a plot size of five rows by three meter length. The main plot was spacing whereas, subplot were the seed rate with level of (30cm, 40cm and 50cm) and (5,10, 15, 20, 25 and 30kg/ha) respectively. The standard variety called Taddes was used as experiment material.

All the remained agronomic practice such asland preparation, sowing/planting, fertilizer rate and application, weeding was applied per the recommendation. Data were collected on plant height and measured from the ground to the tip of the plant, number of productive tiller plant raised from the base of the main plant and produced yield, length of fingers, biomass yield the total ground and grain yield. The central rows of the plants were used for collection of data mainly on plant height, number of productive tiller and length of finger. Number of finger was counted per a single plant head. The data was taken from five randomly selected plants and the average value was compute for all except biomass and grain yield.The net three rows were harvested at fully maturing, the biomass yield and grain yield weight with different plot size. The net areas for individual spacing were as follow:-for spacing of 0.3m the areas was 2.7meter square, 0.4m was 3.6meter square and 0.5m also 4.5 meter square, whereas, the length of the plot was equal (three meter) for all spacing. The plots were harvested by hand sickle and threshed using man power.

Statistical Analysis

Analysis of variance was performed using the two way ANOVA procedure of SAS Statistical Software Version 9.1.3 [10]. The data collected was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test treatment effects for significance using the F-test; the significant means were separated using LSD at alpha level 0.5%.

Result and Discussion

Analysis of variance for two factors split plot design (Table 1) revealed significant difference (P ≤ 0.01) on the interaction effect of spacing and seed rate the means of plant height, number of productive tillers and biomass yield whereas, a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) of grain yield. However, there is no significance difference at number of fingers and length of fingers at (P ≤ 0.05). Since, in the parameters which showed significance difference had an interaction effect between the spacing and seed rate we do not bother on the main effect of these factors. The interaction of the factors for the respond showed that over cross interaction therefore, it become spacing at what level of seed rate had higher respond on the tested variable.

Source of variation Df MS for the interaction(sp*sd) R square CV Grand mean(kg/ha) Plant height (cm) 10 45.288 0.554 4.674 93.66 Number of fingers (#) 10 0.3140829ns 0.4807 7.81 6.36 Number of productive tiller (#) 10 1.4563 0.7235 18.98 3.65 Length of fingers(cm) 10 0.38532996ns 0.4527 9.66 4.85 Biomass yield(kg/ha) 10 12664076.6 0.586 23.53 8520.23 Grain yield(kg/ha) 10 426355.406* 0.5565 30.48 1333.86 *and indicate significance at P< 0.05 and P< 0.01, respectively and 'ns' indicate non-significant Table 1: The mean square values, R square ,coefficient of variance and grand means of the plant height, number of fingers, number of productive tillers, length of finger, biomass yield and grain yield of finger millet at 2014.

Interaction Effect of Spacing and Seed Rate on Growth Traits

The number of productive tiller showed that there is a significance difference in the interaction effect of the spacing and seed rate. The highest number of productive tillers were counted from the interaction effect of 40cm spacing and 30kg/ha of seed rate (5.5), following the combination of 50cm spacing and 30kg/ha seed rate (4.89). But, the lowest number of productive tiller counted from the combination of the factors of 50cm spacing and seed rate of 5kg/ha (1.82). The interaction of the higher seed rate and intermediate inter row spacing gained the higher number of productive tillers. This might be due to the area is moisture stressed; the more plant population can maintained the moisture level under the Number of Productive tiller of finger millet(number) Seed rate(kg/ha) Spacing(cm) 5 10 15 20 25 30 Average

soil. Therefore, at the base of the plant the tiller can raise. Inversely, the low seed rate and the wider intra row spacing gained the low number of productive tillers. Thus, the wider space between the plants under moisture stressed area is exposed to sunlight. This leads to unfavorable condition to raise tiller on base of the plant.

In agreement with present study, tiller numbers per m² increased with use of closer spacing giving higher plant densities [11]. Thus, more population per plot increases the tillering capacity. However, some author reported disagreement to the present finding the wider spacing the higher productive tiller [12]. Whereas, the lower seed rate produced the higher tillers against to the present finding on the similar crop [13].

  • The longest plant height was measured from the between the treatments or interaction of effect of spacing

Table 1: The mean interaction effect of spacing and seed rate for the number of productive tillers (number).

The longest plant height was measured from the interaction mean effect of 50cm spacing and 20kg/ha seed rate (101.4cm). However, the intermediate height which is the shortest from the measured treatments was 82.76cm. Even though there is a significance difference between the treatments or interaction of effect of spacing and seed rate on plant height, the longest plant height does not directly correlated with biomass yield and grain yield. (Table 3) Showed that there is no numerical such big difference between the interaction mean effect on Moreover, the wider the intra row spacing the longer the plant height [14, 15].

Plant height(cm)
seed rate(kg/ha)
Spacing(cm)51015202530average
3093.9396.1392.292.3391.682.7691.491
4093.9398.892.694.293.895.2694.765
509891.1397.33101.489.5391.0694.741
Average95.28695.3594.0495.9891.64389.69393.666

Table 2: Mean interaction effect of the spacing and seed rate for plant height and the grand mean of finger millet at 2014 croppi

Least significance difference of spacing and seed rate=7.251 Table 3: Mean interaction effect of the spacing and seed rate for plant height and the grand mean of finger millet at 2014 cropping season.

Interaction Effect of Spacing and Seed Rate on Yield and Yield Components

Themaximum biomass yield recorded from the interaction of the 30cm spacing and 15kg/ha seed rate (12889kg/ha) and 30cm spacing and 10kg/haalso obtained biomass yield of 11358kg/ha. Whereas, the minimum biomass yield recorded from the combination of 30cm spacing by 30kg/ha of 5504kg/ha. The grand mean of the two factors (spacing and seed rate) was 8520kg/ha. The optimum seed rate and inter row spacing was the 30cmx15kg/ha (Table 4).

Biomass yield(kg/ha)
seed rate(kg/ha)
spacing(cm)51015202530Average
306796113581288910617746955049105.5
4074671000065567222966788898300.167
509272888993339185603762158155.167
Average784510082.339592.66790087724.3336869.3338520.278

Table 3: The mean interaction effect of biomass yield on finger millet at 2014.

Least significance difference between the interaction spacing and seed rate=3320 Table 4: The mean interaction effect of biomass yield on finger millet at 2014.

The higher grain yield was recorded from the interaction effect of 30cm spacing with 15kg/ha (2214.4kg/ha) followed by combination of 50cm by 10kg/ha 1844.7kg/ha. However, the lowest grain yield was measured from the combination of 40cm by 20kg/ha 732kg/ha (Table 5). This revealed that the optimum spacing and seed rate for the production and productivity offinger millet is 30cm inter row spacing and 15kg/ha seed rate for the study areas and similar agro-ecologies.

The narrow spacing was increase the yield; by optimizing the space and covering the root by canopy of inter row plantsfor the moisture stress land. The optimum seed rate uses effectively the available nutrients, moisture and sunlight. Therefore, the lower and higher seed rate not increase the grain yield of finger millet.

Since, the lower seed rate needs high moisture to recover while the higher seed rate also required plenty of rain fall to minimize the competition between the populations per the plot. The effect of the levels from both factors affected the grain yield was interdependently.In agreement to this finding reported the higher grain yield obtained from the intra row spacing of 30cm [14]. However, disagreed with present finding (45cm by 10kg/ha) [9]. Whereas, report that 15kg/ha seed rate with 40cm the higher grain yield [16]. Similarity and difference of the present finding with previous research might be due to for the similarity, the optimum seed rate is 15kg/ha whereas, for the difference on the inter row spacing also, depending on the growing weather condition. Therefore, the recommendation of the appropriate inters row spacing and seed rate per the study location and similar agro-ecology will be important.

Grain yield(kg/ha)
seed rate(kg/ha)
spacing(cm)51015202530Average
3011021574.82214.415821209.11150.91472.2
40918.112861166.17321303.11805.21201.75
501485.91844.71510.7992.5811.81320.11327.617
Average1168.6671568.51630.41102.16711081425.41333.856

Table 4: The Mean interaction effect of spacing and seed rate on grain yield.

Least significance difference between the interaction effect of spacing and seed rate=673.41 Table 5: The Mean interaction effect of spacing and seed rate on grain yield.

Conclusion and Future Recommendation

The present study revealed that, there is interaction effect between the spacing and seed rate on the traits like plant height, number of productive tiller, biomass and grain yield. The appropriate inter row and seed rate for the production of finger millet at the study area was 30cm spacing by 15kg/ha of seed rate gives the higher grain yield and biomass yield. However, the longest plant height and more number of productive tiller obtained from the interaction effect of 50cm spacing with 20kg/ha of seed rate, 40cm with 30kg/ha of seed rate respectively. Therefore, to increase the production and productivity of finger millet in merblekhe district and similar agro ecology, the appropriate inter row and seed rate is the interaction of 30cm with 15kg/ha. This data is one year therefore, further study will needed.

Significance Statements

The interaction of the higher seed rate and intermediate inter row spacing gained the higher number of productive tillers. However, there is no numerical such big difference between the interaction mean effect on plant height: even, there is significance difference between the interaction effect of spacing and seed rate. The optimum spacing and seed rate for finger millet production in biomass and grain yield was 30cm spacing with 15kg/ha seed rate under the erratic rain fall areas.

The narrow spacing was increase the yield. The optimum seed rate uses effectively the available nutrients, moisture and sunlight. Therefore, the lower and higher seed rate not increase the grain yield of finger millet. Since, the lower seed rate needs high moisture to recover while the higher seed rate also required plenty of rain fall to minimize the competition between the populations per the plot. The effect of the levels from both factors affected the grain yield was interdependently .This research shows that the determined spacing and seed rate for finger millet can applicable for the similar area.

Acknowledgments

The Authors would like to acknowledge Axum Agricultural Research Centre (AxARC)for providing the financial to do this study.

Conflict of Interest

No conflict of interest

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@article{nigus2018,
  title   = {Inter Row Spacing and Seed Rate Effect on Finger Millet (Eleusine
Coracana (L.) Production at Merb Lekhe District, Ethiopia},
  author  = {Nigus C* and Melese B},
  journal = {Open Access Journal of Agricultural Research},
  year    = {2018},
  volume  = {3},
  number  = {4},
  doi     = {10.23880/oajar-16000169}
}
Nigus C* and Melese B (2018). Inter Row Spacing and Seed Rate Effect on Finger Millet (Eleusine
Coracana (L.) Production at Merb Lekhe District, Ethiopia. Open Access Journal of Agricultural Research, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.23880/oajar-16000169
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Inter Row Spacing and Seed Rate Effect on Finger Millet (Eleusine
Coracana (L.) Production at Merb Lekhe District, Ethiopia
AU  - Nigus C* and Melese B
JO  - Open Access Journal of Agricultural Research
PY  - 2018
VL  - 3
IS  - 4
DO  - 10.23880/oajar-16000169
ER  -