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The potential of Accelerated Compost as a fertilizer for maize production in the Forest – savannah transition zone of

Nigeria

BY

O. E. AyanfeOluwa1 O. O. AdeOluwa2 and V.O. Aduramigba-Modupe3

1 Federal College of Agriculture, P.M.B 5029, Moor Plantation, Ibadan, Nigeria.

2 Department of Agronomy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.3 Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Moor Plantation,

Ibadan, Nigeria.

• Organic Agriculture (OA) is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems, biodiversity and people.

• Organic agriculture increased yields in Africa by over 100% and has higher yields under conditions of climatic extremes (UNEP, 2008).

• A major limitation to adoption of organic crop production practices (Alaoui, 2009).

• Composting period (Leslie, 2002).

• Accelerated compost and its significance (Rotor, 2008).

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES • To evaluate the potential of Accelerated Compost as

a fertilizer for maize production in the Forest – savannah transition zone

• To obtain the optimal rate of application of Accelerated Compost as a fertilizer for maize production in the Forest – savannah transition zone

MATERIALS AND METHODS

• The Experimental sites

• The Experimental Materials

• Experimental design (RCBD)

• Experimental unit preparation and treatment application

• Planting

• Cultural practices

• Data collection

• Data analysis: ANOVA and DMRT.

The treatments applied

1. Control (No soil additive)

2. Mineral Fertilizer (NPK 15:15:15) 60kgN/ha

3. Normal compost (Aleshinloye compost) 60kgN/ha

4. Accelerated compost 60kgN/ha





Table1. Proximate composition of the Composts used for this study

ParameterAccelerated compost

Ordinary compost (Alesinloye)

N (%) 1.09 1.2

P (%) 2.76 1.08

K (%) 0.38 1.75

Org Carbon (%) 42.09 23

Ca (%) 7 -

Na (%) 37.34 30

Mg (%) 0.53 0.07

Mn (mg / kg) 422.17 73.37

Fe (mg / kg) 1320.8 6053

Cu (mg / kg) 60.89 10.50

Zn (mg / kg) 145.89 1.50

TREATMENTS Soil Test Value pH (H20) 6.9

Org C (g / kg) 7.2

TN (g / kg) 0.4

Available P (mg / kg) 28

Exchangeable cations (cmol / kg)

Ca 22

Mg 0.4

K 0.5

Na 1.1

CEC (cmol / kg) 24

Particle Size (g / kg)

Sand 766

Silt 125

Clay 109

Textural Class Sandy loam

Table 2: Pre-planting Soil physico-chemical Analysis

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 3. Effects of the different levels of Accelerated compost on the growth parameters of maize plants at 4 and 6 weeks after planting (WAP)

Means with same letter (s) in a column are not significantly different at 5% level of probability by Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT)

Legend: NPK; NPK 15-15-15, Oc; ordinary compost, Ac; Accelerated compost.

Treatments

Plant height at 4 WAP

Plant height at 6

WAP

Stem girth at 4 WAP

Stem girth at 6

WAP

No. of leaves at 4 WAP

No. of leaves at 6 WAP

Control 32.50 89.58c 8.68 15.53c 8.17 10.25

60 kg N /ha NPK 40.05 122.77ab 10.73 19.52b 8.56 11.11

60 kg N /ha Oc 40.43 109.38bc 11.34 19.07b 8.78 10.94

60 kg N / ha Ac 43.03 130.96ab 12.11 19.98ab 9.50 10.83

90 kg N / ha Ac 40.18 112.94bc 11.78 20.20ab 9.11 10.89

120 kg N / ha Ac 42.67 130.95ab 13.07 19.43b 9.22 10.56

150 kg N / ha Ac 37.55 117.74abc 10.71 20.01ab 8.61 11.22

180 kg N / ha Ac 42.84 143.81a 14.02 22.32a 9.44 11.39

ns ns ns ns

Table 4. Effects of the different levels of Accelerated compost on the yield parameters of maize


Legend: NPK; NPK 15-15-15, Oc; ordinary compost, Ac; Accelerated compost.

Treatments

Ave No. cobs /plant

Ave Ear weight/plant

Ave cob weight/plant

Ave. Dry cob weight (g/plant)

Control 1.00 155.77d 113.85d 63.58c

60 kg N /ha NPK 1.03 192.40abc 155.55a 92.12ab

60 kg N /ha Oc 1.12 173.84bcd 137.37bc 84.78ab

60 kg N / ha Ac 1.08 168.32cd 127.47cd 83.16ab

90 kg N / ha Ac 1.13 168.02cd 134.43c 81.79b

120 kg N / ha Ac 1.06 184.60abc 151.36ab 94.56ab

150 kg N / ha Ac 1.03 195.91ab 162.78a 94.31ab

180 kg N / ha Ac 1.02 202.12a 163.19a 99.85a

ns

Fig 1. Effects of the different levels of Accelerated compost on the grain yield of maize


0.00.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

Control 60 kg N/ha NPK

60 kg N/ha OC

60 kg N /ha AC

90 kg N /ha AC

120 kg N /ha AC

150 kg N /ha AC

180 kg N /ha AC

Fertilizer treatment

Gra

in y

ield

(t /

ha)

a

bb

b

c

ababab

Fig. 2. Residual effects of the different levels of accelerated compost on the grain yield of maize in the residual planting of field trial

Bar is SEM Legend: NPK; NPK 15-15-15, AC; Accelerated compost, OC; ordinary compost

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

Control 60 kg N/ha NPK

60 kg N/ha OC

60 kg N /ha AC

90 kg N /ha AC

120 kg N /ha AC

150 kg N /ha AC

180 kg N /ha AC

Fertilizer treatments

Gra

in y

ield

(t /

ha)

Table 5. Cost-benefit analysis ($) of maize grain yield ($) produced by the different fertilizer treatments

Maize grain = $500 / tonne

Treatment Cost of fertilizer

Total cost

Revenue generated

Benefit (Total Revenue - Total Cost

Control 0 950 2,176 1,225

60 kg N / ha NPK 300 1,325 2,911 1,588

60 kg N / ha OC 1,250 2,325 2,881 556

60 kg N / ha AC 3,125 4,200 2,877 -1,325

90 kg N / ha AC 4,688 5,781 2,663 -3,119

120 kg N / ha AC 6,250 7,356 3,237 -4,119

150 kg N / ha AC 7,813 8,938 2,946 -5,994

180 kg N / ha AC 9,375 10,513 3,658 -6,856

Conclusion and Recommendation• The result of this investigation revealed that Accelerated

Compost (AC) compared favourably with ordinary Compost and NPK at the same rate of N application (60kg N/ha).

• This shows that the shortness in duration to maturity of AC does not place limitation on the fertilizer potential of the compost, thus encouraging the accelerated composting technology.

• The result of the cost benefit analysis however showed that all the various accelerated compost (AC) treatments gave a negative profit margin due to the high cost of purchase.

• It is therefore necessary to build farmers’ capacity in producing compost on farm.

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