Soil Properties, Crop Yield, and Economic Return in Response to Lime Application on Acidic Nitisols of Southern Highlands of Ethiopia

Table 8

Marginal and partial budget analyses of different rates of lime application combined over 2 years on Nitisols in southern Ethiopia.

	Lime rate (t·ha^−1)
	Control	2.74	4.11	5.54	6.85	8.22
Average grain yield (kg·ha^−1)	3330	3560	4060	4330	3760	3800
Adjusted grain yield (kg·ha^−1)	2990	3210	3650	3890	3390	3420
Average straw yield (kg·ha^−1)	9800	21700	21130	27600	22350	25360
Adjusted straw yield (kg·ha^−1)	8820	19530	190200	24840	20120	22820
Gross benefit from grain	89,791.5	96,219.9	109,644.3	116,847	101,552.1	102,650.2
Gross benefit from straw	36,240.8	80,282.4	78,173.2	102,094	82,676.0	93,803.3
Total gross benefit (ha^−1)	126,032.2	176,502.3	187,817.5	218,942.1	184,228.1	196,453.5
Field cost of lime (ha^−1)	—	11,234.0	16,851.0	22,468.0	28,085.0	33,702.0
Field cost of labor (ha)	—	1,808.4	2,712.6	3,616.8	4,521.0	5,425.2
Total variable cost (birr/ha)	—	13,042.4	19,563.6	26,084.8	32,606.0	39,127.2
Net benefit (birr/ha)	126,032.2	163,459.9	168,253.9	192,857.3	151,622.1	157,326.3
MRR		1.74	3.87	4.77	D	D
MRR (%)		174%	387%	477%

Dominated; 1USD = 47 Ethiopian birr at the time of the study. Price of barley grain = 30 birr kg⁻¹; price of barley straw = 4.11 birr kg⁻¹. The market price of lime = 4.5 birr kg⁻¹; labor cost for spreading lime = 50 ETB per person-day.