Comparative agronomic effectiveness of two agrowastes and NPK fertilizer on the performance of <i>Amaranthus caudatus</i>

Abstract

Production of agricultural wastes is increasing while soils are progressively losing organic matter due to intensive cultivation and climatic conditions. This makes the recycling of organic wastes a useful alternative to incineration, landfill or rubbish dumps. The effects of two agro- wastes and mineral fertilizer on growth and yield of leaf amaranth were assessed in a pot experiment at the Teaching and Research Farm, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti. Treatments consisted of poultry manure (PM) and palm oil mill effluent (POME) each applied at 8 and 16MT/ha while NPK 15-15-15 was applied at 150, 200kgha-1 and no fertilizer as control. Seeds of amaranthus caudatus variety were sown in plastic pot (50x20x40cm) containing 20kg top soil. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design replicated three times. Data were taken on plant height, stem girth, number of leaves plant^-1, leaf area, root length, fresh weight, dry weight, edible yield and above ground plant weight at 6 weeks after planting. The results revealed that the agrowastes significantly (p<0.05) resulted in better performance of leaf amaranth. Application of 16MT/ha PM gave the highest fresh and edible weight of 211.23 and 98.80g respectively. POME also performed better than NPK fertilizer in some of the parameters measured. This indicated that PM and POME could serves as an alternative sources of nutrient to mineral fertilizer for leaf amaranth and also a sustainable fertility management strategy for crop production.

Keywords: amaranth, palm oil mill effluent, organic fertilizer, NPK fertilizer, utilization