EFFECT OF FERTILIZER ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF SWEET POTATO AT FARMER FIELD AT JAMALPUR, BANGLADESH

Abstract

Potato is one of the priority vegetable crops in the highlands of Eritrea growing as a key component in the livelihood systems of farmers. Potato requires a variety of balanced plant mineral nutrients for growth and development without which yield and qualities of tubers are reduced. Potato growers in Bangladesh commonly use both organic and inorganic fertilizer to support crop growth. However this assumption is based on the result obtained from recent years finding’s. As a result the yield and quality of potato produced in Bangladesh is very low as compared with international standards. Therefore the present experiment was conducted to assess the effect of different fertilizers levels on growth and productivity of potato varieties at Jamalpur, Bangladesh. The experiment was conducted in factorial Randomized Complete Block Design with twelve treatment combinations of four varieties (V1: Annou Beni, V2: Annou Kougane, V3: Kokei 14 Go and V4: BARI Sweet potato12) and three fertilizer application (T0: No chemical fertilizer and no compost, T1: BARI fertilizer dose, and T2: Maruhisa dose (Chemical fertilizer + improved compost)) replicated thrice. The results of the study showed that V4 variety and T2 had significant effect on growth and yield parameters. Plant height, leaf number per plant and branch per plant were higher in V4 variety (plant height 21.33cm, leaf number per plant 24.44 and number of branch per plant 5.0 respectively), T2 fertilizer application, and V4T2 treatment. The highest plant height, number of leaf and number of branch per plant were shown in 100 days treatment for V4T2 treatment. The result also indicated that V4T2 (V4 variety treated with T2 fertilizer) produced significantly highest tuber length (19.43 cm), tuber diameter (18.70 cm) and tuber weight (1.01 kg) per plant, and tuber yield of 15.65 t/ha. The yield analysis result revealed that maximum yield of sweet potato was obtained from the application of T2 fertilizer on V4 variety than other varieties. On the whole, it gives an impression that using T2: Maruhisa fertilizer and V4 (BARI Sweet potato12) will have good influence on growth and tuber yield.