Authored by Adeyeye AS
Synopsis
The research was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm, of Federal University Wukari, Taraba State Nigeria, during the raining seasons of 2016 and 2017 to assess the effects of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the growth and seed yield of Bambara nut varieties. The treatments consisted of two varieties of Bambara nuts, (white and black varieties) and the fertilizers: organic (10, 20t ha-1 of poultry manure), and inorganic (30 and 60kgN ha-1 of Urea) with a control. These were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), with four replications. The data collected were on the growth and seed yield parameters of the crop and were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the differences among treatment means were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test at 5% level of probability. The results showed that N fertilizer application rate of 30kgN ha-1 produced significant number of leaves, nodes, flowers, and plant height. Application of 20t ha-1 poultry manure produced highest significant number of branches while urea application of 60kgN ha-1 produced significantly highest pod weight. The control (without fertilizer) gave the significant highest weight of bad seeds while Poultry manure at 10t ha-1 produced significant highest number of seeds, seed weight and number of pods. Therefore, application of 10t ha-1 poultry manure and 30kgN/ha urea are optimum to produce Bambara nut.
Keywords: Bambara nut; Poultry manure; Urea; Growth; Yield; Variety
Introduction
Bambara Groundnuts (Vignea subterranean), is an underutilized legume widely cultivated in Sub- Saharan Africa. Its center of origin is thought to be Bambara, near Timbuktu in Central Mali, West Africa hence its name Bambara Groundnut [1]. The crop has also been widely cultivated in tropical regions since the seventeenth century and was also domesticated in the semiarid zone of West Africa, probably around the headwaters of the Niger River, from where it spread in ancient times to Central Africa, and more recently to the Malagasy Republic [2]. It is the third most important crop after groundnuts and cowpeas, but it has low status as it is seen as a snack or food supplement but not a lucrative cash crop. It is an edible legume which serves as one of the main sources of income for small holder farmers. The seeds contain sufficient quantities of protein (19%), carbohydrate (63%), fat (6.5%) and essential amino acids such as lysine, cysteine and methionine [3,4]. Thus, the crop produces a balanced food, high protein content and source of plant protein for human [5]. Crop production in Sub- Saharan Africa is hindered by several factors such as drought, low soil fertility as well as restricted access to mineral fertilizers [1].
In Nigeria, farmers are always faced with the problem of soil fertility decline which has been considered as the most important biophysical constraints to crop yield and productivity [6]. Crop growth and yield development required mineral nutrition at appropriate amount and can be supplied to crop as fertilizer which is categorized as organic and inorganic. Integration of organic fertilizers such as poultry manure into the farming systems can therefore be a cheaper alternative to alleviating low soil fertility [6]. Poultry manure is a nutrient source for crop production [7-9], and has been shown to increase soil organic C, total N and available P [10]. When incorporated into soil promoted transformation and mineralization of less-labile inorganic and organic P into labile-P in the rhizosphere, which resulted in higher root P concentrations and higher total P uptake by plants [10]. The poultry manure could be a valuable fertilizer which serves as a suitable alternative to chemical fertilizer that is expensive for rural farmers in sub Saharan Africa. However, there seems to be little use of poultry manure and less knowledge available on their effects on crops especially Bambara nut for efficient utilization. As a legume crop, Bambara nut through its root system improved the soil fertility by nitrogen fixing bacteria present in their root nodules but this alone cannot satisfy the nitrogen requirement of the plant [11], hence there is a need for additional nitrogen supply to stimulate nodulation for optimum production [12]. Adequate supply of nitrogen has been found to be beneficial for carbohydrates and protein metabolism, promoting cell division and cell enlargement [13]. The judicious use of chemical fertilizer is also essential to maintain soil fertility [14]. Bambara nut usually grown with low input subsistence crop without fertilizer application in most of the farms and this made its production to be marginal. Hence more findings are needed to determine the fertilizer rate for optimum production under the savannah condition. Therefore, this study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of organic (poultry) and inorganic fertilizer (Urea) nutrient sources on the growth, and yield of two Bambara groundnut landraces grown in field conditions.
Materials and Method
Site description
The study was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria during the raining seasons of 2016 and 2017. Taraba state lies between latitude 6030, 80 30N of the equator and longitude 90 and 120E of the Greenwich meridian with a land mass of 54.426km2. The state has a tropical wet – dry climate, well drained alluvial soils and has both savannah and Rain forest vegetation. The rainfall ranges from 100mm to 250mm per annum in the north with the driest and wettest season lasting from December to February and July to September, respectively. Soil sample of the site was collected at 15cm depth using an auger and poultry manure collected was taken for analysis while the land was ploughed and harrowed. The soil was analyzed for PH, nitrogen, carbon, organic matter and the concentration of phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. The soil PH was determined using the distilled water in KCL with a soil water ratio of 1:2.5. The suspense on was thoroughly stirred and allowed to stand for 30minites after which the PH was determined using an electronic PH meter. Total nitrogen was determined by micro Kjeldahl digestion method described by A.O.A.C [15]. The cations (Ca, Mg) were determined by the atomic absorption method as outlined in the Analysis of the official Analytical Chemists [15].
Experimental treatments and design
The experiment was a 2 x 5 factorial laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. There were ten (10) plots replicated four (4) times, which make up a total number of 40 plots for the experiments. The plot size of 2 x 1m was used with plant spacing of 50cm x 50cm. There was 1m gap between plots and 2m gap between replications. The treatments consisted of two organic fertilizers rate as 10 and 20t/ha (poultry manure) and two inorganic fertilizers rate 30 and 60kgN/ha (Urea) with a control (0kgN/ha) and two varieties of Bambara nut (white and black varieties). The organic fertilizer (poultry manure) was applied on the plot two weeks before sowing, while the inorganic fertilizer (urea) was applied one week after seed emergence.
Crop management
The land was cleared manually using simple farm tools; cutlass, hoe and rake. The layout was then designed and pegged after which beds were raised using a hoe. On each bed, three (3) seeds were sown per hole and later thinned to one per stand after germination making a few 8 Stan per bed. The organic fertilizer (Poultry manure) was incorporated into the soil two weeks before sowing of seeds, while inorganic fertilizer (Urea) was applied to the plant one week after seed emergence. Weeding was done manually with the use of hoe to control weed. The field was weeded as when due throughout the experimentation.
Data collection and analysis
Data were collected on growth and yield parameters of the crop at various stages of plant growth starting from 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 Weeks after planting. The parameters measured were: Plant height (cm), Number of branches, nodes, leaves, flowers, and pods, weight of pods, weight of the seed shaft, Number of good seeds and bad seeds, weight of seeds. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) at P= 0.05 as described by Gomez and Gomez [16] and significance difference among treatments means were evaluated using Duncan Multiple Range Test
Results
Soil analysis was conducted during the research and the results obtained showed that the soil had low nitrogen content, organic matter, organic carbon and ECEC, hence of low fertility status while the textural class of the soil is sandy loam (Table 1). Analysis of the poultry manure used for the research was also carried out as seen in (Table 2). The effects of Bambara nut variety on the growth parameters such as number of leaves, height of plant, number of nodes, and number of branches at different growing stages were presented in table 3.There was no significance difference in the number of leaves of Bambara nut at all growing stages measured, but white variety at 4 weeks after planting (WAP), had higher mean value for leaves number. Expectedly numbers of leaves increase as the plant age increase and reached the peak at 10WAP were the highest leaf number of 129.03 was produced by white variety, while the lowest number of leaves recorded was at week 4, for white variety (29.40a). The number of nodes was not different significantly among the two varieties, although in most cases white variety seems to have higher mean values except at 4WAP. The white variety had the highest number of nodes at 12WAP and the lowest node number at 4WAP (127.4a and 31.00a) respectively. The averages number of branches per plants at all growing stages shows a significant difference only at 4WAP where the black variety had the significant higher branches than white variety. The results obtained on plant height in the study, shows a significant difference at 6 and 12WAP and white variety had the significantly highest plant height respectively. The results obtained from the number of flowers taking among the two varieties showed no significant difference in the number of flowers (Figure 1).
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