Agronomic and economic performance of mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) varieties in response to rates of blended NPS fertilizer in Kindo Koysha district, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Mung bean is one of Ethiopia’s most important pulse crops in the lowlands. The main constraints to mung bean productivity in Ethiopia are low soil fertility and improved varieties. During the 2018 cropping season, a field experiment was conducted in Kindo Koysha woreda with the objective of evaluating the effects of NPS fertilizer rates on yield and yield attributing traits of four mung bean varieties. Treatments consisted of factorial combinations of four mung bean varieties (N26, Shewarobit, NVL-1, and Chinese) with four NPS fertilizer rates (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg ha−1) laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The combination of the N26 variety with 150 kg NPS produced the highest number of pods per plant (15.46), seeds per pod (10.93), grain yield (1240.70 kg ha−1), and biomass (3177.40 kg ha−1). Moreover, the combination of 100 kg NPS ha−1 with the variety N26 also generated the highest net return (31,734.30 Birr ha−1) with a marginal rate of return of 771.71%. Thus, it may be tentatively stated that the usage of 100 kg NPS ha−1 with the variety N26 was determined to be optimum for the development of mung bean in the study region.