EFFECT OF SEEDING RATE ON THE YIELD, YIELD COMPONENTS, AND QUALITY OF MALT BARLEY (Hordeum distichon L.) VARIETIES IN WEST ARSI ZONE, SOUTH EASTERN ETHIOPIA.

Malt barley is an important cash crop which cultivated for both home consumption and market
purposes in West Arsi Zone. However, its productivity and grain quality has been constrained by
low yielding variety, and improper seed rate applications. This study was therefore; carried out
to identify the effect of seeding rate on the yield, yield components and quality of malt barley
(Hordeum distichon L.) varieties at Negele Arsi and Kore districts of West Arsi Zone during
2022 main cropping season.. Factorial combination of three malt barley varieties (Traveler,
planet and Hernike) and four levels of seed rate (100, 125, 150 and 175 Kgha-1) were laid out in
randomized complete block design with three replications. Mean while, the result showed that
the main effect of variety showed highly significant effect (p<0.01) on days to 90% physiological
maturity, plant height, spike length, hectoliter weight and grain protein content. Being the
maximum grain protein content (10.04 %) recorded from Hernike variety. While the main effect
of seed rate affected days to 90% physiological maturity, plant height, spike length, above
ground biomass yield, and straw yield highly significantly (P<0.01). Accordingly, the maximum
percentage of sieve test (92.50% %) and hectoliter weight (64.58) was recorded from the plot
treated with 100 Kg ha-1 seed rate. On the other hand, the main effect of location also showed
significant (p<0.05) influence on days to 90% physiological maturity, sieve test and germination
capacity. Furthermore, interaction effect of variety and seed rate showed highly significant effect
(p<0.01)on days to 50% heading, number of effective tillers, number of seed per spike and grain
yield and significant effect (p<0.05) on thousands of seed weight and harvest index. Such that,
the maximum number of seed per spike (26.18) was recorded from the Hernike variety combed
with 100 Kgha-1 of seed rate. While the maximum grain yield (4247.90 Kgha-1) and Harvest
index (42.36%) was obtained from the combined application of traveler variety and 125 Kgha-1
seed rate. Regarding economic analysis, the highest net benefit return (158283.90birr) was
calculated
in
the
Traveller+125kgha-1treatments
followed
by
Traveller+150kgha-
1(149822.88birr) and V3+S2 (149818.32). while the highest cost benefit ratio(7.7) was
calculated inTraveler+125kgha-1, followed by Hernike+125kgha-1(7.35) and Planet+125kgha-
1(7.24) treatments. Thus, using of 125kg/ha + traveller variety could be tentatively
recommended. However, the experiment has to be repeated to get long-term conclusive
recommendation.