Soil amendments and pepper variety effects on soil physicochemical properties and yield of pepper in Ishiagu, Southeastern Nigeria
Purpose: Poultry dropping and rice-mill wastes are generated in large quantities on daily basis in Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. These bio-wastes can improve soil quality and pepper production. Hence, this study seeks to evaluate the effects of amendments on soil physico-chemical properties and yi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
OICC Press
2024-08-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://oiccpress.com/ijrowa/article/view/8053 |
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| Summary: | Purpose: Poultry dropping and rice-mill wastes are generated in large quantities on daily basis in Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. These bio-wastes can improve soil quality and pepper production. Hence, this study seeks to evaluate the effects of amendments on soil physico-chemical properties and yield of pepper varieties.
Method: This experiment was carried out in the research farm of Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu, during 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons. Split-plot design replicated 3 times was employed. Two varieties of pepper (Yellow and Red) constituted the main plots, while six soil amendments occupied the sub-plots. Soil amendments employed were; poultry dropping (PD) at 10t/ha, rice husk dust (RHD) at 10t/ha, NPK 15:15:15 at 300kg/ha, PD at 5t/ha + RHD at 5t/ha, NPK 15:15:15 at 150kg + RHD at 5t/ha and control.
Results: Soil amendments improved soil pH, organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) in both cropping seasons. Pepper varieties influenced these soil properties in the 2021 cropping season, with yellow pepper showing higher soil pH, OC and CEC than red pepper (6.21 against 6.07, 14.07 against 12.24 g/kg and 16.13 against15.47 cmol/kg), respectively. Soil amendments varied fresh pepper yields from 3.60 t/ha in NPK + RHD treated plots to 6.67 t/ha in PD plots compared to the control with 2.44 t/ha.
Conclusion: PD and PD + RHD increased the soil pH, OC, TN and CEC in both 2020 and 2021, making PD and its integration with RHD a sound strategy for improving soil attributes in the area. In 2020, yellow variety increased higher than red variety with PD and PD + RHD giving higher yield than other treatments. In 2021, yellow variety produced with NPK was similar to yellow variety and red variety produced with PD, but significantly higher than other treatments. Hence, the use of PD and its integration in producing yellow pepper variety on a long-term basis is an effective amendment procedure for pepper production in the area.
Highlights
The yellow variety of pepper studied increased higher than red variety with PD and PD + RHD giving higher yield than other treatments.
Soil amendments greatly improved the soil components studied (pH, TN and CEC) statistically higher relative to the untreated soils within the period.
Application of PD + RHD significantly improved higher or statistically the same with sole PD amendment studied on most of the soil chemical properties within the two years of study.
Among the amendments studied, poultry dropping and its integration was found to have enhanced fruit yield of pepper best within the period.
Overall, it is recommended that continuous PD + RHD application can increase the soil fertility index and consequently increase pepper fresh yield in the area.
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| ISSN: | 2195-3228 2251-7715 |