Effects of farmyard manure and Desmodium intercropping on forage grass growth, yield, and soil properties in different agro-ecologies of Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of study areas.

Figure 2. Depicts aba gerima’s two years average monthly rainfall and temperature distribution.

Figure 3. Illustrates the average monthly rainfall and temperature distribution at guder over a two-year period.

Table 1. Soil properties of experimental plots prior to treatment application (May, 2018) and farmyard manure

Soil properties	Experimental sites		Farmyard manure properties
	Aba Gerima	Guder
SOC (%)	1.29	3.98	17.5
TN (%)	0.13	0.36	1.5
Pav (mg kg⁻^1)	8.4	14.9	32.8
ECEC (cmolc kg⁻^1)	13.0	6.1	82.0
EC (mSm⁻^1)	6.8	4.0	0.34
pH	5.5	5.2	7.4
Soil texture
Sand (%)	12.9	10.7	-
Silt (%)	19.6	30.6	-
Clay (%)	67.5	58.7	-
Soil textural class	Clay	clay	-

SOC: soil organic carbon; TN: total nitrogen; Pav: available phosphorous; ECEC: effective cation exchange; EC: electric conductivity, and pH: soil reaction

Table 2. Effects of fertilizer treatments and production years on the morphology and yield of forage grasses in the aba gerima watershed

Variables	PH	LL	LW	NTPP plant⁻^1	LSR	DMY t ha⁻^1	CP g kg⁻^1	CPY kg ha⁻^1
	cm
Forage grasses
Napier grass	101.1^a	73.9^a	2.8^a	35.3^b	2.3^a	9.2^a	91.3^a	887.8^a
Desho grass	50.7^b	29.1^b	1.5^b	96.9^a	1.6^b	6.1^b	69.4^b	468.4^b
SL	***	***	***	***	***	***	***	***
SEM	1.12	0.64	0.03	2.54	0.04	0.18	2.13	25.71
Fertilizer treatments
Control	71.4^b	48.9^c	2.1	56.6^c	1.9	5.9^b	85.0	536.7^b
Desmodium	72.1^b	49.6^bc	2.1	59.7^bc	2.0	6.1^b	78.6	604.8^b
FYM	73.5^a	53.0^ab	2.2	72.8^ab	2.0	9.6^a	78.2	762.2^a
Desmodium & FYM	81.5^a	54.6^a	2.2	75.4^a	2.0	9.1^a	79.5	808.8^a
SL	***	***	*	**	ns	***	ns	***
SEM	1.59	0.89	0.04	3.59	0.08	0.26	3.01	36.37
Year
2018	74.8	50.6	2.1^b	36.3^b	1.9^b	3.9^b	81.1	321.6^b
2019	77.1	52.3	2.2^a	95.9^a	2.0^a	11.5^a	79.6	1034.7^a
SL	ns	ns	**	***	*	***	ns	***
SEM	1.12	0.64	0.03	2.54	0.04	0.18	2.13	25.71
Overall mean	75.9	51.5	2.2	66.1	1.9	7.7	80.3	678.1
CV (%)	7.3	6.1	6.8	18.8	11.5	11.7	10.4	18.6
Interaction
F*FS	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	*
F*Y	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	***	ns	*
FS*Y	***	ns	***	***	***	***	ns	***

Table 3. Effects of fertilizer treatments and production years on morphological characteristics and yield of forage grasses in the guder watershed

Variables	PH	LL	LW	NTPP plant⁻^1	LSR	DMY t ha⁻^1	CP g kg⁻^1	CPY kg ha⁻^1
	cm
Forage grasses
Napier grass	88.2^a	70.7^a	2.2^a	30.7^b	2.3^a	5.6	131.8^a	795.3
Desho grass	42.7^b	24.5^b	1.4^b	97.3^a	1.9^b	6.0	98.2^b	510.5
SL	***	***	***	***	***	ns	***	***
SEM	1.06	0.67	0.03	2.51	0.04	0.18	2.04	28.30
Fertilizer treatments
Control	61.3^b	45.9^b	1.7^b	58.3^b	2.0	4.4^b	111.9^ab	454.2^b
Desmodium	62.1^b	45.6^b	1.7^b	57.7^b	2.1	4.7^b	108.8^b	498.2^b
FYM	70.4^a	50.2^a	1.9^a	67.4^ab	2.1	7.0^a	121.7^a	866.7^a
Desmodium & FYM	67.9^a	48.5^ab	1.8^ab	72.4^a	2.1	7.1^a	117.7^ab	792.4^a
SL	**	**	*	*	ns	***	*	***
SEM	1.50	0.95	0.04	3.55	0.06	0.26	2.88	40.02
Year
2018	55.5^b	43.2^b	1.6^b	28.4^b	2.0^b	0.7^b	114.3	80.7
2019	75.3^a	51.9^a	2.0^a	99.6^a	2.2^a	10.9^a	115.8	1225.1
SL	***	***	***	***	**	***	ns	***
SEM	1.06	0.67	0.03	2.51	0.04	0.18	2.04	28.30
Overall mean	65.4	47.6	1.8	64.0	2.1	5.8	115.0	652.9
CV (%)	7.9	6.9	7.9	19.2	10.1	15.3	8.7	21.2
Interaction
F*FS	*	ns	ns	ns	ns	*	ns	ns
F*Y	**	ns	ns	ns	ns	*	***	***
FS*Y	***	***	ns	***	***	***	*	***

The values within a column that bear the same letter are not statistically different (p < 0.05); FS: forage species; Y: year; F: fertilizer treatments. FYM: farmyard manure; DMY: dry matter yield; CP: crude protein; CPY: crude protein yield; PH: plant height; LL: leaf length; LW: leaf width; NTPP: number of tillers per plant; LSR: leaf-to-stem ratio.

Table 4. Effects of fertilizer treatments on belowground root characteristics at the aba gerima watershed

Variables	RL (cm)	NRPP (No.)	S: R	RBY (t ha^−1)	RSOC	RTN
					%
Forage grasses
Napier grass	37.6^a	208.8^b	1.6	4.9^a	36.3^b	0.57^b
Desho grass	29.9^b	327.2^a	1.6	3.3^b	39.2^a	0.64^a
SL	**	***	ns	***	**	*
SEM	1.31	12.67	0.08	0.15	0.69	0.02
Fertilizer treatments
Control	37.7	279.7^ab	1.6	3.8^ab	38.8	0.61
Desmodium	31.7	248.0^ab	1.8	3.6^b	38.0	0.59
FYM	33.5	311.3^a	1.5	4.4^ab	38.4	0.60
Desmodium & FYM	32.2	232.8^b	1.6	4.6^a	35.8	0.62
SL	ns	*	ns	*	ns	ns
SEM	1.85	17.92	0.11	0.21	0.97	0.02
Overall mean	33.8	268.0	1.6	4.1	37.8	0.60
CV (%)	13.4	16.4	16.9	12.4	6.3	9.9

Table 5. Effects of fertilizer treatments on belowground root characteristics at guder

Variables	RL (cm)	NRPP (No.)	S: R	RBY (t ha^−1)	RSOC	RTN
					%
Forage grasses
Napier grass	29.0	396.3	4.4	1.4	33.6	0.95^a
Desho grass	26.5	485.5	4.6	1.3	32.5	0.70^b
SL	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	*
SEM	1.07	45.36	0.45	0.12	0.92	0.06
Fertilizer treatments
Control	27.5	523.7	4.9	1.3	35.9	0.90
Desmodium	26.6	358.2	4.2	1.2	33.8	0.83
FYM	28.6	431.5	4.0	1.5	31.3	0.69
Desmodium & FYM	28.2	450.3	4.9	1.5	31.1	0.89
SL	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
SEM	1.52	64.14	0.64	0.17	1.31	0.08
Overall mean	27.7	440.9	4.5	1.4	33.0	0.82
CV (%)	13.4	25.6	24.7	21.2	9.7	24.0

Values within a column that bear the same letter are not statistically different (p < 0.05); Control: forage grass alone; RL: root length per plant; NRPP: number of roots per plant count; S: R: shoot-to-root ratio; RBY: root biomass yield; RSOC: root soil organic carbon; RTN: root total nitrogen; CV: coefficient of variation; SEM: standard error of mean.

Figure 4. Soil physicochemical properties under various fertilizer treatments after treatment application at Aba Gerima watershed.

Figure 5. Effects of various fertilizer treatments on soil physicochemical properties after treatment application at Guder watershed.BD: bulk density; D: desho grass; Desm: Desmodium intortum; FYM: farmyard manure;SOC: soil organic carbon; TN: total nitrogen; Pav: available phosphorous; and pH: soil reaction.

Data Availability Statement

The data analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on rational request.