Evaluation of Different Agricultural Lime Sources for their Agronomic Effectiveness, Yield of Food Barley and Faba Bean and Acid Soil Properties in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

The potentials of lime to restore soil health and fertility of the acidic soils is one of the best options of sustainable soil fertility management practices. However, the liming effects depend on its source, composition, purity, and fineness. The study initiated to evaluate the effectiveness of different lime materials produced in Ethiopia. Lime samples collected from different producing factories and were characterized at Holeta Agricultural Research Centre. Following characterization on station and on-farm experiments were conducted to evaluate crop and soil response for the different lime sources. The treatments comprised of four different lime materials and control laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. The result showed that all lime sources fulfill the standards of agricultural lime. The result also showed that there were significant differences between and among lime sources on soil properties as well as crop yield but highly significant between the control treatments. This implies that the lime materials can be suitably used nationally to ameliorate soil acidity and increase crop productivity. Thus, the resource-poor farmers dwelling in western, north western, and central highlands who cannot afford to transport the lime sources from far distances can make use of the lime sources near to areas as there is no significant difference.