Effects of Integrated Use of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Rice : Agronomic and Socioeconomic Performance of Upland Rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Tselemti Wereda of n.w Tigray, Ethiopia

The decline in soil fertility is widespread in Tigray and is threatening food security. Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) which implies combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, helps to overcome the problems associated with single application of either source for enhanced crop productivity. Based on this fact, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of integrated application of inorganic fertilizers and FYM on soil fertility status, agronomic and socioeconomic performance of rice. A 4x3 factorial experiment consisting of four levels of inorganic fertilizers (0, 25, 50 and 75 kg/ha) and three levels of FYM (0, 6 and 9 t/ha) was laid out in RCB Design with three replications. The results revealed that application of 9t/ha FYM with 75 kg/ha of IF resulted in grain yield of 44.4Ql/ha (p< 0.05), but the dominance analysis showed this higher agronomic yield did not brought highest profit because the value of the increase in yield is not enough to compensate for the increase in costs. the perception of the respondent farmers to inorganic fertilizers showed that 76% of the respondents had no willingness to use inorganic fertilizers at full dose.