Mesfin Shimbahri, Haile Mitiku, Gebresamuel Girmay, Zenebe Amanuel, Gebre Abera
Land Resource Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
Institute of Climate and Society, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
Heliyon. 2021 Aug 12;7(8):e07758. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07758. eCollection 2021 Aug.
Establishing model based balanced nutrient requirements for barley (.) in the northern Ethiopia can solve the fertilizer recommendation problems and enhance crop yield. The Quantitative Evaluation of Fertility of Tropical Soils (QUEFTS) model was used to estimate balanced nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) requirements for barley production in Alaje, northern Ethiopia. The objectives were to (i) quantify soil N, P and K supply and recommend fertilizers using QUEFTS model; (ii) investigate response of QUEFTS fertilizer application on yield and nutrient uptake and (iii) validate QUEFTS model performance. The experiment had four treatments: (T1) model based fertilization; (T2) blended fertilization; (T3) farmers' fertilization practices and (T4) control/no fertilizer. Soil information of the experimental plots were analyzed and used as model input to estimate soil nutrient supplies and recommend fertilizer. Yield and agronomic data were recorded and nutrient uptake and use efficiencies were analyzed. Model performance and accuracy were also checked using root mean square error, coefficient of determination, index of agreement and percent bias. The result revealed that the N, P and K soil supply ratio in the field experimental plots were 9:1:6. The higher grain yield of 4747 kg ha was recorded in the QUEFTS based fertilization plots. Validation results indicated that there is a good correlation between the QUEFTS predicted and observed grain yields implying that the QUEFTS model can be a base for development of simple and cost-effective decision support tools for nutrient management and fertilizer recommendations. Thus, the model performance and prediction accuracy is promising and can help farmers to adjust fertilizer application rates based on crop requirements.
确定基于模型的埃塞俄比亚北部大麦均衡养分需求能够解决肥料推荐问题并提高作物产量。热带土壤肥力定量评价（QUEFTS）模型被用于估算埃塞俄比亚北部阿拉杰地区大麦生产所需的氮（N）、磷（P）和钾（K）的均衡需求量。目标是：（i）使用QUEFTS模型量化土壤氮、磷和钾的供应并推荐肥料；（ii）研究QUEFTS施肥对产量和养分吸收的响应；（iii）验证QUEFTS模型性能。试验有四种处理：（T1）基于模型的施肥；（T2）掺混肥施肥；（T3）农民的施肥方式；（T4）对照/不施肥。分析了试验小区的土壤信息并将其用作模型输入，以估算土壤养分供应并推荐肥料。记录了产量和农艺数据，并分析了养分吸收和利用效率。还使用均方根误差、决定系数、一致性指数和偏差百分比检查了模型性能和准确性。结果表明，田间试验小区的氮、磷和钾土壤供应比例为9:1:6。基于QUEFTS施肥的小区记录到了4747 kg/ha的较高谷物产量。验证结果表明，QUEFTS预测的谷物产量与观测到的谷物产量之间存在良好的相关性，这意味着QUEFTS模型可以作为开发简单且经济高效的养分管理和肥料推荐决策支持工具的基础。因此，该模型的性能和预测准确性很有前景，能够帮助农民根据作物需求调整肥料施用量。
