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