Godebo et al. Environ Syst Res (2021) 10:12 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-020-00210-4 RESEARCH Nutrient uptake, use efciency and productivity of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as afected by nitrogen and potassium fertilizer in Keddida Gamela Woreda, Southern Ethiopia Temesgen Godebo 1* , Fanuel Laekemariam 2 and Gobeze Loha 3 Abstract Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in Ethiopia. The productivity of wheat is markedly constrained by nutrient depletion and inadequate fertilizer application. The experiment was conducted to study the eﬀect of nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) fertilizer rates on growth, yield, nutrient uptake and use eﬃciency during 2019 cropping season on Kedida Gamela Woreda, Kembata Tembaro Zone Southern Ethiopia. Factorial com- binations of four rates of N (0, 23, 46 and 69 kg Nha -1 ) and three rates of K 2 O (0, 30 and 60 kg Nha -1 ) in the form of urea (46–0-0) and murate of potash (KCl) (0-0-60) respectively, were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that most parameters viz yield, yield components, N uptake and use eﬃ- ciency revealed signiﬁcant diﬀerences (P < 0.05) due to interaction eﬀects of N and K. Fertilizer application at the rate of 46 N and 30 kg K ha -1 resulted in high grain yield of 4392 kg ha - 1 and the lowest 1041 from control. The highest agronomic eﬃciency of N (52.5) obtained from the application of 46 kg N ha -1 . Maximum physiological eﬃciency of N (86.6 kg kg -1 ) and use eﬃciency of K (58.6%) was recorded from the interaction of 46 and 30 kg K ha -1 . Hence, it could be concluded that applying 46 and 30 kg K ha -1 was resulted in high grain yield and economic return to wheat growing farmers of the area. Yet, in order to draw sound conclusion, repeating the experiment in over seasons and locations is recommended. Keywords: Economic return, Growth, Yield and nutrient use eﬃciency © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativeco mmons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Background Wheat is main staple crops in terms of both production and consumption in Ethiopia. It is one of the most impor- tant cereals cultivated in Ethiopia (Jemal et al. 2015). Ethi- opia is the second largest wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa (FAO, 2019). Wheat ranks fourth after tef (Eragrostis tef), maize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) in area coverage and total production (CSA 2019). Despite the long history of wheat cultivation and its importance to the Ethiopian agriculture its average productivity is still very low 2.76, 2.66 and 2.7 t ha -1 at national, SNNPRS and Kambata Tambaro zone, respectively (CSA 2019). In all cases this is defnitely far below the world’s average yield (3.52 t ha -1 ) (USDA 2020) and 6 t ha -1 (at research sta- tion) (Assefa et al. 2015). Te low yield of wheat may be due to soil erosion, intensive crop cultivation and inad- equate application of N and P for a long time without Open Access *Correspondence: teme.tome@gmail.com 1 Specialization in Agronomy, Department of Plant Science, College of Agriculture, Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article