Assessment of Organic Fertilizer Usage by Garden Egg Farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was undertaken to assess organic fertilizer usage by garden egg farmers in Enugu State, Nigeria. The multistage sampling technique was used to select 80 garden egg farmers. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse data for the study. The mean age of respondents was 39 years. Fifty-five percent (55 %) of respondents were married. The majority (97.5 %) of the respondents used farmyard manure while the average cost of organic fertilizer was N57372.73. A lesser percentage (7.5 %) of respondents in the study applied over 2000 kg of organic fertilizer per hectare with 40 % applying twice per season. The perceived benefit of organic fertilizer was: improvement of soil fertility (2.95 ± 1.12), environment-friendly (2.99 ± 1.23). A constraint identified in the use of organic fertilizer was: slow effect (2.12 ± 1.43), Odorous nature (2.06 ± 1.28) and difficulty in the collection and handling of organic fertilizer (2.72 ± 1.03). The study among other things recommends that farmers be granted credits and extension services that will teach them the required skills in the handling and use of organic fertilizer.

An Assessment of the Elemental Compositions of Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) Products for Biofertilizer Production

“…Although neem tree bark possesses phytotoxic properties [5], neem leaf manure is gaining popularity due to being environmental friendly and can increase nitrogen and phosphorus contents in the soil [6]. As noted by Chah et al [12], the application of biofertilizers to soils can improve aggregate stability and resistance to soil compaction, enhance soil fertility and reduce nutrients leaching, increase biological activity, enhance water retention capacity and reduce greenhouse gases emissions through soil carbon sequestration.…”

“…Other plant materials considered include spent grain, oil palm bunch ash, and cocoa pod husk [8], and composts produced from the leftover of raw fruits and vegetables and pruning waste [9]. There are some other studies that have considered the use of cattle [10,7,11], turkey [8], poultry [8,6,12,10], sheep, goat, pig [12], and poultry, cattle and oat [13] manure as an organic fertilizer. However, limited studies have investigated the biofertilizer potentials of neem leaves, neem tree bark, and mixture of leaves and bark.…”