Effect of Invasive Aquatic Plants (Azolla a., Myriophyllum a. and Cyperus a.) Biochar Amendment on Maize Growth: An Assessment

Abstract

The management of invasive aquatic plants (IAPs), which is primarily accomplished through manual grubbing, incurs significant costs for populations, especially since the operations must be renewed on a regular basis. Converting IAPs into biochar for use as soil amendment will help offset the costs of this mechanical control strategy, while also improving carbon sequestration, soil fertility and crop yields. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of using IAPs biochar amendment on the quality of acidic soils and subsequently maize growth. Ten treatment groups including nine treatments and one control were established with four replicates each on freshly sown maize soils. Treatments options include applying IAP biochar (group 1), different combinations of IAP biochar and poultry manure (group 2), and mineral fertilizer (group 3). After 37 days, the average height of maize plants in the control group is 68.83±7.91cm, compared to 69.82 ± 7.34 cm (group1), 64.44 ± 7.82cm (group 2) and 69.08 ± 9.51cm (group 3). Multivariate analyses suggest that the IAPs biochar have significantly higher potential to improve plant growth parameters than either poultry manure or synthetic fertilizer. Based on the foregoing, the use of IAPs biochar amendment should be promoted among smallholder farmers because it is environmentally friendly, easy to produce, has a lower operational cost than other fertilizers, and has been shown to improve the acidic and impoverished dryland soils prevalent in Burkina Faso.

Water Fern- Azolla: A Review

“…Azolla is harvested in large quantities and fed to cattle and pigs as feed (Tarrif et al, 2021). It was also demonstrated that feeding Azolla to broilers produced growth and body weight values comparable to corn-soybean meal (Ouedraogo et al, 2021). Digested Azolla manure left over from biogas production was suitable as fish pond fertiliser and in a study of lactating cows (Abdelatty et al, 2021), it was discovered that Azolla could be used as a feed ingredient, with milk yield and fat percentage remaining at the same levels as when fed conventional feed.…”

“…Weed growth is stifled when Azolla forms a thick, almost opaque mat. There are most likely two mechanisms at work here, the most efficient of which is light deprivation for immature weed seedlings due to sunlight obstruction (Ouedraogo et al, 2021). The other is a dense, interlocking Azella mat that provides physical resistance to the emergence of weed seedlings (Marzvan et al, 2021).…”