Elementary Statistics and Computer Application

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• LSD is more efficient than RBD or CRD.
  
• This is because of double grouping that will result in small experimental error.
• When missing values are present, missing plot technique can be used and analysed.

Disadvantages

• This design is not as flexible as RBD or CRD as the number of treatments is limited to the number of rows and columns.
  
• LSD is seldom used when the number of treatments is more than 12.
  
• LSD is not suitable for treatments less than five. Because of the limitations on the number of treatments, LSD is not widely used in agricultural experiments.
• Note: The number of sources of variation is two for CRD, three for RBD and four for LSD.