Cost Effectiveness of Sweet Potato Production Using Farmyard Manure and Inorganic Phosphorus Fertilizer at Assosa Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Sweet potato is one of the food security crop which has been cultivated in the South west, eastern and southern parts of Ethiopia over centuries. Despite that, the yield is below its genetic potential. This is due to less attention given to the crop in the region assuming that there is no response of the crop to fertilizers. A study was conducted to evaluate economic cost effectiveness of using farm yard manure and phosphorus fertilizer for sweet potato production in the study area. The treatment consisted of four levels of farm yard manure (0, 5, 10 and 15 t ha-1) and four levels of P (0, 23, 46 and 69 kg P 2 O 5 ha-1). The experiment was laid out as a Randomized Complete Block Design in a factorial arrangement and replicated three times. Analysis of the result showed that using the rate of the combined fertilizers (15tha-1 farmyard manure and 69kg ha-1 phosphorus) gave the highest yield (23.65tha-1) which gave the highest net benefit of 60033Birr ha-1. Therefore, if the farmers use by integrating 15 t ha-1 farm yard manure and 69 kg P 2 O 5 ha-1 , they can be more profitable in the study area.