Participatory Evaluation and Demonstration of Agricultural Lime with Site Specific NPS Fertilizer on Wheat Production and Amelioration of Soil Acidity at Burka Jiren Watershed

Soil acidity is among the major soil fertility bottlenecks causing low crop productivity worldwide. The addition of agricultural lime is used to mitigate soil acidity. Therefore, this study was conducted to Participatory evaluation and demonstration of Agricultural Lime with Site specific NPS Fertilizer on wheat production and Amelioration of soil Acidity at Burka jiren community watershed. The experiment was implemented during 2024 crop season in Gechi district at Burka Jiren community watershed. The treatments was consisted two level; T1= Recommendation 100% of P₂O₅ from NPS without Lime application, T2= Recommendation 100% of P₂O₅ from NPS with Recommended Agricultural lime and the recommended N fertilizer rate of 92 kg ha⁻¹ was used for each treatment at equal ratio. The collected data was analyzed using T-test and interpreted as mean and standard deviation by SAS software version 9.0. Results indicated that the grain yield of bread wheat was significance (P<0.05) influenced between two treatments. The highest grain yield (28.167 qt/ha) was recorded from treatment two which treated by agricultural lime with site specific NPS fertilizer. However the lowest grain yield (11.25 qt/ha) was obtained from NPS fertilizer alone. The application of agricultural lime significantly increased the mean of soil pH from 5.07 to 5.57. Both treatments presented similar levels of organic carbon and total nitrogen. Farmers in the Burka Jiren community watershed should consider integrating agricultural lime with site specific NPS fertilizer to mitigate soil acidity and enhance crop productivity.