RESPONSE OF OKRA (Abelmoschus esculentus L.Moench) TO BIOCHAR DERIVED FROM COCOA POD HUSK AND NPK

ABSTRACT

The need to improve soil fertility and enhance crop production has led to a renewed interest in the use of cocoa pod husk (CPH) in form of biochar, an organic fertilizer, relative to, mineral fertilizer as soil amendment. The deleterious effect of inorganic fertilizer, on the environment, has been enumerated and the global effect of CPH.

Field experiment on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus ) fertilized with Biochar. deried from cocoa pod husks (CPH), was conducted at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRN). Ibadan, between June and November 2016, to evaluate the effectiveness of the organic fertilizer relative to the inorganic NPK fertilizer. The effect of the amendment on the soil chemical property was also evaluated .The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. NPK 20-10-10 fertilizer, was applied at 60 and 30kg/ha with mixture of biochar at 5kgN/ha and 2.5kgN/ha respectively.

The field data include plant growth parameters which were taken at two weeks after planting. on weekly basis up to eight weeks and fruit yield from eight to sixteen weeks. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOV A) and economic analysis. Results from plant height. stem girth, number of leaves, biomass accumulation, nutrient uptake and yield showed that the growth and yield of okra were significantly (P< 00.5) different with NPK 60kg/ha + Biochar 5kgN ha . soil amendment compared to the inorganic fertilizer treatment alone. The improvement in soil pH was 0.69 < 1, for this treatment, which indicated that the effect of the fertilizer, is beneficial to plant nutrition.

Economic analysis showed the marginal rate of return was highest for this treatment, compared to other treatments.

Keywords: Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus ), NPK fertilizer, Biochar, Coca pod husk.