Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of livestock Research Centre / Lahj in 2014 and farm of Ali Bin Ali Haj, Beer Ahmed, region in 2016, to study the influence of 4 levels of nitrogen (urea 46%) (0, 30,60,90 kg/N/ha) and phosphorus (P2O5 46%) (0, 15,30,45 kg/P/ha) on the growth and yield of two pearly millet cultivars (Kadan 1 and Kadan 5). Treatments arranged in split plot design with four replication where nitrogen assigned randomly in the main plots, phosphorus in sub-plots and cultivars in sub-sub plots. Results indicated that the highest levels of both nitrogen (90 kg/ha) and phosphorus (45 kg/ha) show superiors where nitrogen gave highest values in plant height (210 cm) in the first season and 1000 grain weight (11.4 and 10.9 gm), while phosphorus gave the highest values in plant height (194 and 210) least No. of days to 50% of flowering (43.9 and 50.3 days) for both seasons respectively. Kadan5 cultivar achieved significantly the highest values in grain and straw yield (2509, 2462) and (4360, 6329 kg/ha) compared to kadan1. Interaction between the highest levels of nitrogen (90 kg/ha) and phosphorus (30 kg/ha) significantly increased grain (2661, 2874) and straw (4780, 6916 kg/ha) yield for both seasons respectively. Interaction with the same nitrogen and phosphorus levels with kadan 5 cultivar gave the highest values of straw yield (6820 and 6941 kg/ha) for both seasons respectively.