Response of barley to liming of acid soils collected from different land use systems of Western Oromia, Ethiopia

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the acid soil sensitive but genetically diverse cereal crop in Ethiopia. A green house pot experiment was conducted to assess the response of barley variety (HB-1307) grown on acid soils to application rates and particle sizes of lime. The study employed a randomized complete block design of three-way factorial arrangement of three land use types (forest, grazing and cultivated lands), six rates of lime (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 tons ha-1) and two particle sizes (50 and 100 mesh) of lime in three replications. Plant height, fresh and dry biomass, grain yield, harvest index and plant P uptake were measured and subjected to analysis of variance using SAS software to evaluate the treatment effects. Maximum mean barley yield components for both 50 and 100 mesh lime particle sizes (LPS) were obtained at 6 t ha-1 of lime rate on the forest land followed by 8 and 10 t ha-1, respectively, on grazing and cultivated lands. The mean square estimate revealed highly significant (P < 0.001) between lime rates and land uses on barley height, fresh and dry biomass, harvest index and P uptake whilst it showed an insignificant (P > 0.05) interaction effects between lime rates and lime particle sizes. There was significant ( P< 0.05) interactions between lime rates, lime particle sizes and land use types on barley height, dry biomass and harvest index while insignificant (P > 0.05) on fresh biomass, grain yields and harvest index. The study showed, plant height, fresh and dry biomass increased due to liming of acidic soils of the three different land uses. However, response pattern of these traits to varying lime application rates varied from one land use to the other.