Evaluation of the Effect of Cow Dung and Poultry Dropping on Maize Kernel Yield (Published)
Organic agriculture is the application of organic fertilizers such as Poultry dropping and Cow dung in a nutrient deficient soil to increase and enhance vigorous growth of plant and crop yield, in which all input is based on natural sources of agriculture which has no negative effect on the performance of crops, improves the fertility in the soil and causes no harm to the environment. A comparative study on the “The evaluation of the Effect of Cow Dung and Poultry Dropping” on Maize (Zea mays) Kernel Yield was carried out at Niger Delta University Teaching and Research Farm, Amassoma, in 2013/2014 cropping season. The treatments consisting of 20t/ha of Poultry dropping, 20t/ha of Cow dung and No treatment in which each treatment was replicated four (4) times. The treatments were arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Some baseline agronomic data were collected such as, Plant height, Leaf area, Number of nodes, First cob attachment, Weight of 1000 kernels of corn and as well as the physicochemical characterization of the soil. The result was subjected to analysis of variance and it shows that the treatment with 20t/ha of Poultry dropping had significant difference compare to Cow dung and that of the control. 1000 kernel weight of Maize with the highest mean value of 154.97g and 144.91g were obtained from the treatment applied with 20t/ha of poultry dropping and 20t/ha of cow dung respectively. The mean Corn kernel yield in ton per hectare had the highest mean value of 1.49 was obtained from the treatment with 20t/ha of poultry dropping followed by 20t/ha of cow dung while the least mean of corn kernel yield in t/ha was obtained from the treatment with no application of organic manure. Findings indicate that, the organic manures applied enhanced the growth and yield performances of the crop.
Keywords: Cow Dung, Fertilizer, Organic Manure, Yield, poultry dropping
Effect of Rock Phosphate and Cow Dung on the Heavy Metals Concentration in Amaranthusviridis Linn Grown in a Field (Published)
This research work investigated the effect of the application of rock phosphate (RP)and different rates of cow dung fertilizer on the heavy metals uptake in Amaranthus viridis collected from experimental and control sites in Ile -Ife, Nigeria. The residual concentrations of the elements lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and arsenic (As) in the crop following the fertilizer treatments were calculated as the transfer factor (TF). A total of 18 subplots containing the crops were treated with the fertilizers and the treatments consisted of RP alone; RP + 1.0 tha-1; ; RP + 2.0 tha-1; RP + 3.0 tha-1RP + 4.0 tha-1 and minus RP and cow dung as the control. The experimental design used was the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) which consisted of a control and the ttreatments had PR added singly and in a combination with different levels of cow dung. All the treatments were replicated thrice. Composite topsoil samples were collected using the Dutch soil auger while the plant leaves were collected pre- flowering; both were subjected to routine analyses for heavymetals using atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS). The results showed that PR application alone and in combination with various levels of cow dung increased the soil solution concentrations of Pb, , Zn, Cu, As and Pin the soil but were below the recommended standard by WHO and USEPA. Except for Cd the enrichment of the topsoil with heavy metals were not above the normal and critical value. Cadmium had a high value of 5.30µgg-1 which was above the critical value of 3.0 µgg-1. The heavy metals content of the plant under different treatments showed that Pb content did not increase with treatments. The study further revealed a high transfer ratio (TR ) of heavy metals between soil and Amaranthussp and ranged from Pb ( 1.72 -1.86 ), Zn ( 0.22 -0.67 ), Cu (14.38 -29.8 ), Cd (0.16 -0.32 )and As (0.9 -2.1 ). The Cd concentration in the crop was negatively correlated ( r = -0.51, p< 0.05 ). It can be concluded that both RP and cow dung contributed significantly to soil and crop contamination with heavy metals.
Keywords: Cow Dung, amaranthusviridis, heavy metals concentration, linn grown, rock phosphate