Participatory Evaluation of Planting Basins and Fertilizer Management Practices Under Conservation Agriculture on Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) Yield in the Dryland Areas of Tigray, Ethiopia

Aim: The aim of the study was evaluate the effect of planting basin and fertilizer management practices on sorghum yield.

Study Design: Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications.

Place and Duration of the Study: The experiment was conducted at Tao Farmers Training Center (FTC), Raya Alamata districts of south Tigray, Ethiopia in 2016 - 2017 seasons.

Methodology: The treatments in the experiment were; 1) planting basin + fertilizer, 2) planting basin without fertilizer 3) planting basin + farmyard manure, 4) planting basin + fertilizer + farmyard manure, 5) planting basin + fertilizer + cow pea intercropping, 6 ) planting basin without fertilizer under cow pea intercropping , 7) conventional plots planted sole sorghum and 8) cow pea.

Results: Analysis of variance for grain yield of sorghum revealed that significantly (P<0.05) more variation among the tillage practices and fertilizer managements considered in the experiment. Significantly more combined mean sorghum grain yields of 4.61 t ha-1 and 4.0 t ha-1 with higher net benefits (79,413.6 and 72,446.3 birr/ha respectively) and acceptable marginal rate of retunes of respectively were attained from planting basin + 4.62 g NPS fertilizer basin-1 and planting basin + 450g farmyard manure basin-1 under the conservation farming practices respectively, whereas, the lowest mean Sorghum grain yield of 2.86 t ha-1 was obtained in the conventional tillage. The effect of the tillage and fertilizer managements on soil physico-chemical properties may require longer time to be evident. The respondent of participating farmers have preferred planting basins + fertilizer, planting basin + farmyard manure and planting basin + farmyard + fertilizer first, second and third respectively, based on their own selection criteria.

Conclusion: Planting basin tillage practices with conservation farming components overtakes their conventional farming complements. Permanent planting basin tillage combined with fertilizers micro dosing, mulching of residues and cowpea intercropping can mitigate the effects of frequent dry spells, safeguard food security, and eventually cope the influence of climate change in the moisture deficit areas of Tigray and other similar agro ecologies and soil conditions. Moreover, the main challenges for the future scaling of conservation farming includes how to enhance farmer awareness of conservation farming benefits, and how to effectively apply farmyard manure and how to manage labor cost for preparation of basins and weed managements.