Inter Row Spacing and Seed Rate Effect on Finger Millet (Eleusine Coracana (L.) Production at Merb Lekhe District, Ethiopia

Background and objective: Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.ssp. coracana), is an important crop grown in low input farming systems by resource poor farmers in eastern and southern Africa. One of the factors contributing to low yield of finger millet is poor crop management practices such as, seed rate, spacing and optimum fertilizer rate. The main objective of the present study was to determine the appropriate inter row spacing and seed rate. Methodology: The experiment was conducted in 2014 a main cropping season at Merblekhe district at central zone of Tigray, Ethiopia, substation of Axum agricultural Research center. The experimental design was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The main plot was spacing whereas, subplot were the seed rate. Result: Analysis of variance revealed significant difference (P ≤ 0.01) due to the interaction effect of spacing and seed rate on the means of plant height, number of productive tillers and biomass yield whereas, a significant difference(P ≤ 0.05) for grain yield. However, there is no statically significance difference at number of fingers and length of fingers at (P ≤ 0.05).The higher grain yield and biomass yield was recorded from the interaction effect of 30cm spacing with 15kg/ha (2214.4kg/ha) and (12889kg/ha) respectively. Conclusion: Results of study revealed that the production and productivity of finger millet in Merblekhe district and similar agro ecology, the appropriate inter row and seed rate is the interaction of 30cm with 15kg/ha. This is one year data; further working on this trial is necessary recommendation of the present study. Keywords: Finger millet; Inter row spacing; Seed rate; Interaction and split plot