Grain Quality, Yield, and Physiological Efficiency of Malt Barley Varieties Under Diverse Nitrogen Amounts and Split - Utilization Timings in Ethiopia’s Central Highlands

Under optimum Nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate with best-split application time is an abiotic menace resulting in massive yield losses to global food security and malt barley and other major staple crops' quality. To harvest the highest grain yield with good quality, the optimal N-rate must coincide with the ideal split application timing, and variety is essential. Finding out how nitrogen application rates (50, 70, 90, and 110 kg ha -1 ) and split timing (Treatment 1 = full dose at sowing, Treatment 2 = half at sowing and a half at mid-tillering, and Treatment 3; = 1/4 at sowing, 1/2 at mid-tillering, and 1/4 at anthesis) affected the yield, physiological, and agro-physiological efficiency of various malt barley varieties during the main cropping season of 2022 and 2023 was the primary objective of this study. With an acceptable range of quality criteria (thousand seed weight of 35-45 g and hectoliter weight of 48-62 kg ha⁻ 1 ), the yield increased significantly from 2889.00 to 6611.10 kg ha⁻ 1 . The IBONE174/03 variety had an appropriate amount of thousand-grain weight (49.82 g) compared to the EH1847 variety. Malt brewers are encouraged to adopt the IBONE 174/03 variety to suit their needs because it provides an ideal grain yield, a tolerable thousand-grain weight, and an acceptable hector litter weight. Optimizing malt quality, productivity, and physiological and agro-physiological efficiency requires using a 110 kg ha-1 N rate and one fourth at sowing, half at mid-tillering, and one fourth at anthesis application time.