Improving bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) productivity through integrated use of mineral fertilizers and farmyard manure in Guagusashekudad District, Northwestern Ethiopia

Bread wheat is a major staple food crop in Ethiopia. However, its productivity in Guagusashekudad District is below potential due to low soil fertility and suboptimal use of nitrogen-phosphorus-sulfur-boron (NPSB)-Urea and farmyard manure fertilizers. Therefore, an experiment was conducted during the 2024 main cropping season to evaluate the response of bread wheat to different rates of NPSB-Urea and farmyard manure and to determine the optimum combination for production in Northwestern Ethiopia. The treatments comprised factorial combinations of four NPSB-Urea levels (0–0, 50–100, 100–200 and 150–300 kg ha -1 ) and four farmyard manure levels (0, 5, 10 and 15 t ha -1 ) arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Analysis of variance showed that plant height, spike length, thousand kernel weight, biomass yield, harvest index, straw yield and grain yield were significantly ( p < 0.05) influenced by NPSB-Urea, farmyard manure and their interaction effects. The highest grain yield (5.40–5.92 t ha -1 ) was obtained from 150 to 300 kg ha -1 NPSB-Urea combined with 0–15 t ha -1 farmyard manure, while the lowest yield (1.69 t ha -1 ) was recorded from the control treatment. Partial budget analysis indicated the highest net benefit (253,254.00 ETB ha -1 ) and marginal rate of return (839.90%) from 150 to 300 kg ha -1 NPSB-Urea combined with 15 t ha -1 farmyard manure. Thus, this combination appears economically profitable and may be recommended for bread wheat production in the study area; however, multi-location and multi-season validation is required before extending the recommendation to similar agro-ecologies. Clinical trial number: not applicable.