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Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences - Vol. 11, No. 1
Publication Date: February 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/dafs.111.14054.
TER, S. T., OLATUNJI, O. F., & IBRAHIM, N. B. (2023). Concentration of Soil Nutrients and Yield Response of Tomato (Solanum
Lycopersicum) as Influence by Organic Fertilizer® (Compost) on the Soil of Makurdi, Nigeria. Discoveries in Agriculture and Food
Sciences, 11(1). 1-8.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Concentration of Soil Nutrients and Yield Response of Tomato
(Solanum Lycopersicum) as Influence by Organic Fertilizer®
(Compost) on the Soil of Makurdi, Nigeria
TER, S. T.
Department of Soil Science, Federal University of Agriculture,
P.M.B. 2373, Makurdi, Nigeria.
OLATUNJI, O. F.
Department of Soil Science, Federal University of Agriculture,
P.M.B. 2373, Makurdi, Nigeria.
IBRAHIM, N. B.
Department of Soil Science, Federal University of Agriculture,
P.M.B. 2373, Makurdi, Nigeria.
Abstract
Over reliance on inorganic fertilizers as a crop nutrient source has left undesirable
consequences on the soil and soil environment in the soil of Nigeria. One of the
direct consequences is low yield of crops occasioned by imbalances in soil nutrients.
It is expedient to adopt organic inputs in order to overcome some of these
challenges. In this regard a field trial was conducted in 2018 and 2019 to evaluate
the efficacy of organic fertilizer as a soil nutrient input for tomato cultivation in
Makurdi. The experiment consisted of six (6) levels of compost manure (0, 0.2, 0.4,
0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) t/ha. The treatments were laid in Randomised Complete Block
Design and replicated three (3) times. It was observed that organic fertilizer
remarkably increased the concentration of soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrients
content in the soil. Also, applications of compost at 1.0 t/ha produced plants with
higher growth and yield parameters. Lower plant yields were obtained from non
fertilizer treatments. Hence, organic fertilizer is recommended as a suitable
agricultural input for sustainable production of tomato in the study area.
Key word: Organic fertilizer®, tomato, organic matter, soil nutrients
INTRODUCTION
Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crops grown in Nigeria (Aduayi et al.,2002). The
crop is grown for it; edible fruits which richly supply vitamins and mineral to the human body
system, acts as antioxidants which helps in cancer treatment and promotes good health. (Arab
and Steck, 2000). Beside dietary and health benefit, the crop is widely known for its importance
as a cash and industrial crop in most part of the world (Saeed-Awan et al.,2012). A study by
University of Arizona indicated that imported fresh tomato from Mexico contributed $4.8
billion in sales to the US economy in 2016 (Schwartz, 2018). Nigeria is the second largest
producer of tomato in Africa by Food Agriculture Organization report (FAO,2014), over one
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Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences (DAFS) Vol 11, Issue 1, February- 2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
million hectares of land has been reported to be devoted for the cultivation of the crop (Aduayi
et al.,2002). It is estimated that over 150,000MT of tomato paste are imported yearly, valued
at $170 million (Sunday et al.,2018). Despite this production and economic statistics, huge gaps
exist between the demands and supply of the crop; according to report by Premium Times
(2018), the demand for fresh tomato fruits in Nigeria was estimated at 2.45 million metric tons
per annum while Nigeria produces only about 1.8 million metric tons per annum. The existing
gap has been attributed to low supply of the crop occasioned by low yield per unit area of land,
poor post harvest handling, pest and disease infestation etc (Robison and Kolavaillli,2010).
Tomato yield like other crops depend on fertility status, whereas the soils are low in plant
nutrients supply, optimal yield of the crop will be impaired. This study was thus carried out to
assess the concentration of soil nutrients and performance of tomato in the soil of Makurdi
amended with organic fertilizer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Experimental Site
The field experimental was conducted in 2018 and 2019 cropping seasons under rain-fed
condition at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. The
area falls within latitude 70 411 N and longitude 80 371 E, at an elevation of about 97 meters
above sea level in the Southern Guinea Savanna Agro- Ecological Zone of Nigeria
Makurdi has a mean annual rainfall and temperature of 1250 mm and 32 oC respectively. The
soil of Makurdi has high erodilibility, coarse textured, weak structured and low in nutrient
supply (Amhakhian et al., 2010).
Experimental Treatments and Design
The experiment consisted of six (6) levels of compost manure (0, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000)
kg/ha in three replicates laid in Randomised Complete Block Design.
Soil Sampling and Analysis
Surface (0-15 cm) soil samples were randomly collected at eight different points with the aid of
a soil auger using. The samples were bulked for analysis. The soil samples were air dried,
ground and pass through 2 mm sieve and taken for routine soil analysis in the laboratory as
follows; Soil pH was determined in a 1:1 soil-water suspension by the glass electrode method,
particle size analysis by the hydrometer method of Bouyoucos (1951) in which sodium
hexametaphosphate (calgon solution) was used as dispersing agent. Total organic carbon was
by chromic acid oxidation procedure of Walkley and Black (1934), total nitrogen was
determined using the procedure described by Anderson and Ingram (1996), the Molybdenum- blue method as described by IITA (1979) was used to determine available phosphorus.
Exchangeable bases were determined by the neutral ammonium acetate saturation. Na and K
in the extracts were determined by the flame photometer while Ca and Mg were determined
using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Cation exchange capacity was determined by
summation of exchangeable bases.
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TER, S. T., OLATUNJI, O. F., & IBRAHIM, N. B. (2023). Concentration of Soil Nutrients and Yield Response of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) as
Influence by Organic Fertilizer® (Compost) on the Soil of Makurdi, Nigeria. Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences, 11(1). 1-8.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/dafs.111.14054
Nursery Activities and Seedlings Transplanting
The tomato seedlings were raised in a nursery which was later transplanted at four weeks
maturity. The planting spacing adopted in the field was 50 cm x 0.75 cm and the plot size was
3m x4m
Nutrients Application
The organic fertilizer was incorporated in the soil one (1) week before the seedlings were
transplanted.
Data Collection and Analysis
Plant height (cm) and number of branches per plant, were collected; at 3, 6, 9 and 12 weeks
after transplanting (WAT). The number of fruits and weight (kg) per plant were determined at
harvest. Crop data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the means that
were statistically different were compared using Fisher’s least significant difference (F-LSD) at
5% level of probability (Obi, 2001).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Soil Properties before Fertilizer Application
The soil of the study area as presented in Table 1 was moderately acidic in both seasons (6.70
and 6.30 in 2017 and 2018 respectively), low in total nitrogen (1.02 and 0.82) and available
phosphorus (1.41 and 1.28) in both cropping seasons the study was conducted. The
concentration of organic matter and exchangeable cations also falls below the critical range in
the soils of Southern Guinea Savanna previously established by Aduayi et al., (2002).
Considering the result of soil analysis as indicated in Table 1, it is obvious that the soil of the
study area was low in nutrient supply and expectedly would respond to soil amendment.
Chemical Composition of Organic Fertilizer
The chemical composition of organic fertilizer used in the study is presented in Table 2. The
organic fertilizer was industrial formulated compost from animal and plant residue and had
high concentration of plant nutrient elements indicative of its ability to supply essential
nutrients to plant.
Effects of Organic Fertilizer on Soil
The effect of organic fertilizer on soil pH status (Tables 3 and 4) shows that soil pH was lowered
in non fertilizer plots (6.67 and 6.69 in 2017 and 2018 respectively). Conversely, soil pH was
raised with organic fertilizer application in the two years of the study. The highest soil pH (6.80
and 6.88) was obtained with application of fertilizer at 1000kg/ha. Similarly, SOM, total N,
available P and exchangeable cations were positively affected by organic fertilizer application
in the two years of study. The study showed that organic fertilizer positively influenced
concentration of nutrients in the soil and could be adopted as plant nutrient source in order to
overcome the inherent low nutrients supplying capacity of soils in the study location. This
result agrees with previous works by Makinde et al., (2001) and Adidiran et al., (2014) who
demonstrated that organic manure from varying sources improves soil supply of plant
nutrients and consequently optimized crops yield. The effects of compost on soil properties is
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Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences (DAFS) Vol 11, Issue 1, February- 2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
widely reported by several Authors (Adeniyan and Ojeniyi,2005; Brady and Weil,2007;
Adeniyan et al.,2011)
Effect of Organic Fertilizer on Plant Growth Parameters
The effect of organic amendment on growth parameters is presented in Tables 5 and 6. Organic
amendment resulted in the increase in plant height and number of branches when compared
to zero fertilizer plots. The control treatment had the lowest plant height across the treatments
in both seasons Table 5. The highest plant height was obtained from fertilizer treatment at
1000kg/ha. Also, it was observed that though plant height varies with levels of organic
amendments, there was no statistical difference at 600 kg/ha, 800kg/ha and 1000kg/ha. Table
6 presents the effects of fertilizer on the number of branches. It was inferred that though more
branches were obtained from organic amended plots, this was not statistical difference from
zero fertilizer plot at 3- and 6-weeks intervals. However, there was statistical difference in
number of branches per plant at 9 and 12 weeks after transplanting. The effect of fertilizer
amendments in varying forms on plant growth parameters has been widely reported by several
Authors (Aduayi et al.,2002; Ewulo, et al.,2008; Idowu,2011; Adepetu et al.,2014; Havlin et al
2014)
Effect of Organic Fertilizer on Plant Yield Parameters
Organic fertilizer at 1000kg/ha was superior in terms of number of fruits per plant and weight
of fruits per plant Table 7. The lowest fruits yield was obtained at zero fertilizer plots (15 and
22 in 2017 and 2018 respectively) in the two cropping seasons. The highest number of fruits
was obtained at 1000kg/ha but was statistically the same with result obtained at 800kg/ha in
the two cropping seasons. Number of fruits and weight of fruits per plants increase with
increasing levels of organic amendment. However, there was no significant difference at zero
fertilizer and at 200 and 400 kg/ha. Similarly, there was no statistical difference of fruits weight
at 800kg/ha and 1000kg/ha of organic fertilizer amendment. As earlier indicated, organic
fertilizer contains high plant nutrient elements hence must have released proportionate
nutrients for plant utilization and consequently, higher yield. This observation agrees with
Makinde et al., (2001); Brady and Weil (2007); Ogundare et al., (2015) and Fatima et al., (2016)
who asserted that fertilizer was a necessary farm input to optimized crop yield.
Conclusion
The study has shown that organic fertilizer is suitable as a plant nutrient source which can raise
soil organic matter, increase concentration of total nitrogen, available phosphorus and
exchangeable cations. The nutrients release in the soil from the fertilizer contributed to plant
growth and optimized fruits yield. Therefore, organic fertilizer can be used as a soil amendment
in enhancing sustainable crop production in the study area.
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TER, S. T., OLATUNJI, O. F., & IBRAHIM, N. B. (2023). Concentration of Soil Nutrients and Yield Response of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum) as
Influence by Organic Fertilizer® (Compost) on the Soil of Makurdi, Nigeria. Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences, 11(1). 1-8.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/dafs.111.14054
Table 1: Soil Properties of the Experiment Area (2017 and 2018)
Soil parameters 2017 2018
Sand (%) 77.54 78.60
Silt (%) 12.36 11.40
Clay (%)
Textural class
10.10
Sandy loam
10.00
Sandy loam
pH 6.70 6.30
Organic matter (%) 2.12 1.80
Total nitrogen (%) 1.02 0.83
Phosphorus (mg/kg) 1.41 1.28
K (cmol kg-1
) 0.55 0.58
Ca (cmol/kg-1
) 3.47 3.61
Mg (cmol kg-1
) 1.86 1.78
Na (cmol kg-1
) 0.18 0.16
CEC (cmol kg-1
) 6.06 6.35
Table 2: Chemical Properties of Organic fertilizer® (OF)
Parameters O F®
pH 7.0
Organic matter (%) 48.65
Total nitrogen (%) 8.20
Phosphorus (mg/kg) 6.12
K (cmol kg-1
) 3.80
Ca (cmol kg-1
) 13.28
Mg (cmol/kg-1
) 8.13
Na (cmol kg-1
) 0.62
Table 3: Effect of Organic fertilizer® on selected soil properties in Makurdi (2017)
Treatment pH OM
(%)
N (%) P
(mg/Kg)
K
cmol/kg
Ca
cmol/kg
Mg
cmol/kg
Na
cmol/g
CEC
cmol/kg
Control 6.67 2.01 0.81 0.85 0.50 2.13 1.61 0.18 4.42
200kg/ha OF 6.72 2.18 1.03 1.86 0.54 2.67 2.09 0.18 5.48
400kg /ha OF 6.75 2.75 1.27 2.43 0.58 3.50 2.20 0.23 6.51
600kg/ha OF 6.75 3.16 1.35 3.51 1.60 3.66 2.81 0.30 8.37
800kg/ha OF 6.88 3.68 1.77 4.05 1.61 3.81 2.83 0.30 8.55
1000kg/ha OF 6.88 4.23 2.06 4.14 1.61 3.90 2.83 0.33 8.67
OF= Organic fertilizer®