Abstract:
Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops produced in
Tigray region; however, farmers are producing the crop from the available cultivars
without or with very low rates of nitrogen fertilizer. The cultivars produced in the
region were not evaluated in comparison to improved varieties to the response of
nitrogen fertilizer. Therefore, this experiment was conducted during 2014/2015 in
Gantaafeshum district in Tigray region with objectives of assessing the effect of
nitrogen rates on yield and yield related traits of garlic cultivars and thereby
identifying adaptable and high yielding cultivars with higher market demand. Seven
garlic cultivars (three improved, three locally introduced and one local) and four N
fertilizer rates (0, 41, 82, 123 kg N ha-1) were arranged as 7 x 4 factorial treatments
and laid out as a randomized complete block design with three replications. All yield
and yield related traits were significantly influenced by the interaction of cultivar and
nitrogen fertilizer except leaf length (cm), leaf number per plant, bulb length (cm) and
sizes of bulbs and cloves of different categories that were significantly influenced
either by both cultivar and nitrogen or one of these. The highest total yield was
obtained from the cultivar Bora 1 (12.61 t ha-1) at the rate of 82 kg N ha-1 but the
yield decreased to 12.27t ha-1 as the nitrogen level increased to 123 kg N ha-1. The
lowest yield was recorded from the local cultivar Guahgot (5.31 t ha-1) without N
fertilizer application. The quality was determined based on number of marketable
bulbs and weight of cloves.Bora-1 had 44.44 and 20% of bulbs categorized under
medium and large categories, respectively. This cultivar had also the highest
proportion of marketable cloves categorized under medium (27.10%) and large
(33.80%) clove categories. The cost benefit analysis indicated that cultivar
Felegdaero followed by Bora 1 both at 41kg N ha-1 rates had maximum marginal
economic return of 148.24 and 135.84, respectively. Therefore, it is possible to
suggest the advantage of growing cultivar Bora-1 at 82 kg N ha-1 followed by Tsedey
and Felegdaero varieties both in combination of 123 kg N ha-1 at Guahgot,
Gantaafeshum district and in other areas having similar agro-ecology.
