Comparison of industrial by-product and natural limestone for their agronomic effectiveness, yield of food barley and acid soil properties in the central highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

The application of lime is believed to enhance soil health status through improving soil pH, base saturation and reduces Al and Mn toxicities. Liming effects depend on the source, composition, purity and fineness of the lime. The objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness of hydrated lime (Ca (OH)2), the industrial byproduct and different natural liming materials produced at different regional bureau of Agriculture on neutralizing soil acidity and their concomitant effects on food barley yield. Lime characterization was undertaken at Holeta Agricultural Research centre (HARC) and field experiment was conducted at HARC field research station for two years. The treatments comprised of five different lime materials (Awash calcite and dolomite, Dejen lime, Senkele lime and Ca (OH)2) and one control (without any lime type added) in randomized complete block design with three replications. The result indicated that neither the soil chemical properties nor the food barley yield showed significant difference between the hydrated lime and natural lime materials produced at different corners of the country, but nearly equal improvement of soil pH, exchangeable acidity, Al, P, Ca and Mg content. This implies that hydrated lime can serve as an alternative agricultural lime to ameliorate soil acidity. Hence, hydrated lime can be used as agricultural lime material after verifying the result at different locations having different soil acidity ranges with different testing crops.