EVALUATION OF CASSAVA PEEL BASED COMPOSTS FOR BANANA (Musa cavendish cv. Williams) PRODUCTION IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Cassava peel (CP) is an organic waste of cassava processing that requires extra cost to manage but it can be composted as soil amendment in crop production. However, CP is limited in bioavailable potassium (K) and often requires fortification with other organic sources for optimum performance. Mexican sunflower (MS), Siam weed (SW) and Poultry manure (PM) can be used as fortifiers to improve the fertilizer use efficiency of CP, but there is a dearth of documentation about its use as fertilizer in banana production. Therefore, the nutrient release pattern of cassava peel-based compost (CPBC), and banana growth and yield responses to CPBC application were investigated in Ibadan, Nigeria. The CP fortified with MS, SW and PM were composted as CP (100%), CP+PM (70%+30%), CP+SW (70%+30%), CP+MS (70%+30%), CP+PM+SW+MS (70%+10%+10%+10%) and CP+SW+MS (70%+15%+15%). From each compost, 0.34 g was added to 50 g river sand weighed into75 ml incubation cup and were laid in a completely randomized design with four replications in the laboratory to study K (cmol/kg) release patterns for 10 weeks. Sand samples were collected from each incubation cup at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks for nutrient analyses using standard procedures. The best three composts CP+PM, CP+PM+SW+MS and CP+SW+MS were selected for field trials with control in a randomized complete block design replicated thrice. On the field, the selected CPBC were applied at banana recommended rate of 600 kg K/ha and studied for 18 months using banana as a test crop. Stem GirthSG (cm), Number of Sucker at Harvest-NSH, Plant Height-PH (cm), Number of Hands per BunchNHB and Bunch Weight at Harvest -BWH (kg) were determined using standard procedures. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA≤0.05. Nutrients released were significantly different among the composts in the weeks of incubation. The highest K determined by the composts were 1.91±0.34 (CP+PM+SW+MS) at 2, 1.46±0.41 (CP+SW) at 4, 1.38±0.64 (CP+MS) at 6, 1.18±0.21 (CP+SW+MS) at 8 and 1.09±0.42 (CP+PM) at 10 weeks after incubation (WAI). The highest total N and total P determined was at 2 and 8 WAI with 2.31±0.41 (CP+PM+SW+MS) and 118.75±0.41 (CP+PM+SW+MS) respectively. The CPBC treatments significantly improved the banana growth parameters with similar SG and NSH from CP+SW+MS (14.96±0.37) and from CP+PM+SW+MS (14.29±0.31) but significantly higher than CP+PM (13.00±0.28) and control (9.66±0.37); likewise compost of CP+PM+SW+MS gave tallest plants (175.49±0.27) followed by CP+SW+MS (159.61±0.44) which was similar to CP+PM (141.93±0.34) but significantly higher than control (112.62±0.31) at 12 months after planting. The NHB in CP+PM+SW+MS (12.10±0.04) and CP+SW+MS (11.97±0.04) were similar but significantly higher than CP+PM (10.93±0.04) and control (6.43±0.04). The BWH at 18 months from CP+PM+SW+MS (10.87±0.56) and CP+SW+MS (10.68±0.56) were similar but significantly higher than CP+PM (10.28±0.56) and control (8.96±0.56). Composted cassava peel, poultry manure, Siam weed and Mexican sunflower (70%+10%+10%+10%) and cassava peel, Siam weed and Mexican sunflower (70%+15%+15%) gave considerable amount of potassium determined and high yield in banana production, which could be recommended for use by farmers.