ABSTRACT
Effects
of rice husk ash and different levels of N.P.K. 15:15:15 fertilizer on growth
and yield of garden egg (Solanum melongena) was studied in a field
experiment at the Federal College of Agriculture Teaching and Research Farm.
Treatment consisted of rice husk ash at 4t/ha alone, rice husk ash plus N.P.K
at 75kg/ha, rice husk ash N.P.K at 150kg/ha, rice husk ash plus N.P.K at
225kg/ha and fertilizer at 300kg/ha alone. Treatments where fitted in a
Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and replicated three times. The result showed
that rice husk ash (4t/ha) and N.P.K fertilizer at 225kg/ha significantly (p =
0.05) increased growth and fruit yield of garden egg when compared with rice
husk ash alone and N.P.K at 300kg/ha. The result showAlthough no significant
difference was observed in biomass between treatments. The productivity of
garden egg increases in this order: N.P.K: 300kg/ha (8.87), RHA+N.P.K: 150kg/ha
(14.39), RHA: 4t/ha (15.94), RHA + N.P.K: 75kg/ha (18.25), RHA + N.P.K:
225kg/ha (21.7). It is therefore recommended that application of RHA + NPK at
225kg/ha be used for greater and economic production of garden egg by the
farmer at Ishiagu, Ivo Local Government Area in Ebonyi State.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Garden egg (Solanum melongena) is one of
the major vegetables grown in West Africa.
The local types and the aubergine (exotic type) are cultivated but the
local types are more common in West Africa countries. The crop is grown for
either the immature fruit or leaves depending on the locality. The immature
fruits are either eaten raw or cooked, the crop is cultivated in tropical
Africa.
The eggplant is an important vegetable
due to its nutrient value. Garden egg
can either enjoyed fresh alone or with groundnut or cooked into a sumptuous
sauce, which is eaten with boiled yam or plantain. It can also play a very vital role in an
occasion where some people are using it as bitter kola. It also have many health benefit like
improving digestive system, high in folate, manganese, vitamin k, magnesium,
vitamin c and copper. They came either
in cream-colour flesh or green and have a pleasantly bitter taste (due to the
presence of small amounts of nicotinoid alkaloids) and spongy consistency.
Garden egg is well adapted to the
tropical climate and it growth is affected by nitrogen and phosphorus
availability (Egbo, 2012). Nitrogen deficiency affects growth of new leaves and
stem and phosphorus deficiency affects fruit formation. Nitrogen is very
important for plant growth because it is part of protein and nucleic acid which
are basic component of plant protoplasm and chlorophyll, which are
indispensable for photosynthesis. Phosphorous is also an essential element of
plant structure as well component of energy compound like Adenosine
Triphosphate (ATP) (Marschner, 1995). Fertilizers have been established to be
important in solanum species cultivation, nitrogen is important in vegetative
development, phosphorus is needed to setting NPK fertilizer is therefore needed
for good crop yield in solanum species. However, before nutrients in the soil
can be taken by plants, the soil physical properties must be in good condition
to enhance free flow of water and nutrients in the soil.
Rice husks, wood remains, nut shell,
manure and crop residues are regarded as agricultural waste, but recently such
solid wasts have been transformed into biocher for the purpose of carbon
sequestration. In an area of land were farmer are farrowed with household
waste, wood ash, nut shell, crop residues, rice husk at his compound are doing
better than those one been plant in his farm that are not farrowed with this
waste, due to the ash are serves as a liming material. It neutrized the soil to
be free from acidic while the household waste, nut shell, crop and animal
residues are serve as organic manure.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Declining in soil fertility has been
identified as the fundamental cause of declining in crop yields in many parts
of Africa (Sanchez et al., 2007). Soil
acidity is a major constraints in soil fertility maintenance particular in the
humid tropics. As the soil pH declines,
the supply of most plant nutrients decreases while aluminum and a few
micronutrients become more soluble and toxic to plant. These problems according to Harter (2007) are
particularly acute in humid tropical regions that have been highly
weathered. The use of liming materials
from agricultural and domestic waste has been found to improve the availability
of nutrients in the soil, increase crop yields and activities of soil
micro-organisms due to amelioration of soil pH (Ojeniyi et al., 2000: Ano and
Agwu, 2005; Kekong et al., 2010). In
order to obtain high yield of garden eggs there is the need to augment the
nutrient status of the soil to meet the crop’s requirement and thereby maintaining
the fertility status of the soil. One of
the ways of increasing the nutrient status is by boosting the soil nutrient
content either with the use of organic materials such as rice husk ash
(RHA). Other animal waste, or with the
use of compost with or without inorganic fertilizer. (Dauda et al., 2008).
Therefore there is the need to
investigate ways to improving the hydro-physical properties of soil to enhance
growth, quality and yield of crops, hence this study which tends to evaluate
the effect of rice husk ash on the growth and yield of eggplant in acid
ultisol.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Effect of different levels of NPK
compound fertilizer under based application of rice husk ash on growth and
yield of garden egg (Solanum melongena).
1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Rice husk ash is highly available
amendment in large quantities. It has
reasonable quantities of cations Ca, Mg, N, P, K.
Rice husk ash therefore can serve as
fertilizer and also control soil acidity.
Fertilizer is very expensive, scare and out or reach of the majority of
farmers to buy. Farmers rarely apply
recommended doze hence the use of rice husk ash that is rich in nutrients and
hence readily available to the reach of their locality.
1.5
SCOPE AND DURATION OF THE STUDY
The study was conducted in Federal
College of Agriculture, Ishiau Ebonyi State.