EFFECT OF POULTRY MANURE AND UREA FERTILIZER ON THE PERFORMANCE AND NUTRITONAL COMPONENTS OF CORCHORUS OLITORIUS

SULEIMAN,, Khadijat Omowumi (2021) EFFECT OF POULTRY MANURE AND UREA FERTILIZER ON THE PERFORMANCE AND NUTRITONAL COMPONENTS OF CORCHORUS OLITORIUS. Masters thesis, Landmark University, Omu Aran, Kwara State.

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Abstract

The use of inorganic fertilizer in Nigeria is limited by scarcity at the time of its need and high cost while poultry manure (PM) is cheap and readily available, rich in micro and macro nutrients apart from its high nitrogen constituents but it is limited by the bulkiness. Therefore, two field experiments were carried out at two different locations concurrently (Site A directly behind the poultry farm) and (site B directly opposite the screen house) in the cropping season of year 2020 at Landmark University Teaching and Research Farm, Omu-Aran, Kwara State. The results of site B was use to validate the result of site A. The experiment at both sites comprised of PM at six levels (100, 80, 60, 40, 20, and 0%), six levels of urea fertilizer (100%, 80 %, 60%, 40%, 20% and 0%) and the time of urea fertilizer application at three levels (1, 2, and 3 weeks after sowing (WAS)). The two experiments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications which contained 17 treatments including the control to determine the sole and combined effects of poultry manure and urea fertilizer on the growth, yield, proximate and mineral contents of Corchorus olitorius. Results from this study showed that urea fertilizer and PM (sole or combined) increased growth (leaf numbers, stem diameter, number of branches and plant height), and the yields (whole yield, marketable yield and edible yield) parameters, proximate and mineral contents (K, Ca, Mg and P) of C. olitorius relative to the control. The results showed that sole application of PM alone at 100% increased growth parameters(stem girth, plant height, leaf numbers and number of leaves), mineral contents(Ca, K, Mg and P) of C. olitorius relative to the urea fertilizer alone applied at 1, 2 or 3 WAS compared with sole application of urea fertilizer alone (100%) either at 1, 2 or 3 WAS at both sites which can be attributed to the presence of micro and macro nutrients present in the PM and the fact that urea fertilizer is prone to losses by run-off, volatilization, leaching and/or denitrification. While inorganic fertilizer (applied either at 1, 2 or 3 WAS) increased carbohydrate, ash and moisture content of C. olitiorius compared with PM. PM increased these parameters relative to urea fertilizer applied either at 1, 2, or 3 WAS. In most cases, there were no significant differences in applying urea fertilizer to C. olitorius at 1, 2 and 3 WAS. The treatments, 60% PM + 40% urea fertilizer applied at 1 WAS produced the best growth parameters which are 49.55, 51.00 and 52.78 at weeks 4, 5 and 6 respectively for plant height, 7.14 and 7.37 at weeks 4 and 5 respectively for stem diameter, 89.11, 91.11 and 92.56 at weeks 4, 5 and 6 respectively for number of leaves, 15.11, 17.42 and 18.44 at weeks 4, 5 and 6 respectively for number of branches and treatment 80% PM + 20% urea fertilizer produced the best yield parameters (whole, marketable and edible yield ). This could be ascribed to the synchrony in the time of availability of sufficient amount of N (nutrient) from urea fertilizer in the soil to the demand of the C. olitorius plant for uptake. In all, 40% poultry manure and 60% urea fertilizer applied at 2 WAS has the best values of proximate and mineral contents which are 7.12 and 1156.25 respectively of C. olitorius. Therefore, for those that desired to cultivate C. olitorius for its edible leaves application of 60% PM + 40% urea fertilizer applied at 1 WAS is recommended, however, for those that wants the quality of the C. olitorius leaves, 40% poultry manure and 60% urea fertilizer applied at 2 WAS is recommended.

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