Abstract: Potato is one of the most important tuber crops grown in Ethiopia as it plays a crucial role in Ethiopian agriculture, contributing to food security and livelihoods of majority of farmers. However, Ethiopia's Potato production and productivity lag behind other countries due to various constraints faced by the farmers of the country, notably among them improper application rate of NPSB fertilizer and inter row spacing for potato production. Thus, study was conducted to determine the effect of NPSB fertilizer rates and inter row spacing on tuber yield and yield components of potato during 2022-2023 cropping season. The experiment consisted of four levels of NPSB (50,100,150 and 200 kg ha-1) fertilizer and three (65, 75 and 85cm) inter row spacing with control treatment. The experiment was laid out in 4x3 factorial plus control arrangements in randomized complete block design with three replications. The analysis of variance showed that the main effect of NPSB application rates and inter row spacing were significantly affected all studied parameters. However, interaction effect showed non-significant. Hence, application of 200 kg ha -1 NPSB resulted maximum marketable tuber yield (51.36t ha-1 while lower yield was obtained from control treatment. Furthermore, the highest marketable tuber yield (45.16 t ha -1 were obtained from the inter-row spacing of 85cm whereas the lowest result for these parameters were recorded at 65 cm. Conversely, the highest value of agronomic efficiency 152.4 kg kg-1 was obtained at lowest NPSB rate 50 kg ha -1 while lowest agronomic efficiency 142.65kg kg-1was obtained from highest NPSB 200 kg ha -1. The result of correlation analysis showed that there is positive and significant correlation among tuber yield and yield components, such Marketable tuber yield was strolgly correlated with tuber number (r=0.49**), total tuber yield (r=0.99***), Average tuber weight (r=0.92***), large tuber size (r=0.92***), Medium tuber size (r= 0.46**) and small tuber size (r=0.46**). Besides, the partial budget analysis revealed that the highest net benefit obtained (1231355 birr ha-1) with acceptable marginal rate of return (3823.92%) and (2120240 birr ha-1) with acceptable marginal rate of return (11444.83%) from NPSB kg ha-1 and 85cm inter row spacing respectively. Therefore, the production of potato with 150 kg ha -1NPSB fertilizer rate and 85cm inter row spacing is most productive and economically profitable and can be recommended for the study area for further scaling up.
Abstract: Potato is one of the most important tuber crops grown in Ethiopia as it plays a crucial role in Ethiopian agriculture, contributing to food security and livelihoods of majority of farmers. However, Ethiopia's Potato production and productivity lag behind other countries due to various constraints faced by the farmers of the country, notably among t...Show More
Abstract: A promising approach to enhance the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) is end-capped group reconfiguration. Five distinct acceptor molecules were produced by end-group modification of the recently synthesized chemical DC-IDT2Tz (R). Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT were utilised for computing an array of geometric and photovoltaic features of formulated and reference molecules, consisting of charge transfer analysis, the energy of excitation, absorption maximum, binding energy, oscillator strength, frontier molecular orbital analysis, and transition density matrix analysis. The absorption spectra of newly designed compounds exhibited a narrow energy band gap (Eg) with red-shifting. Engineered chemicals additionally demonstrate lower binding and excitation energies. A comprehensive investigation is conducted as well to assess the charge transfer between the acceptor and donor parts. The aforementioned investigations indicated that the discovered chemicals possess intriguing potential for optimized organic solar cell implementation. The modification of terminal structures has been revealed to be effective in modifying the energy levels of frontier molecular orbitals, band gap, absorption spectra, reorganization energy, open-circuit voltage, and binding energy values in the inspected molecules. In light of the above results, these compounds show potential as acceptor materials.
Abstract: A promising approach to enhance the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) is end-capped group reconfiguration. Five distinct acceptor molecules were produced by end-group modification of the recently synthesized chemical DC-IDT2Tz (R). Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT were utilised for computing an array of...Show More