Ameliorate the effects of poultry manure and NPK fertilizer on the performance of pepper relay cropped with two cassava varieties

Abstract

Farmers in Nigeria practice intercropping by relaying cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) into pepper (Capsicum annum L.). However, high cost of inorganic fertilizer had discouraged most farmers from applying fertilizer to their crops. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of NPK fertilizer and poultry manure on the performance of pepper relay cropped. A split-plot layout was adopted using four fertilizer levels: no fertilizer, 120N + 80P + 50K kg/ha, poultry manure (PM) 6,250 kg/ha and 50 % to 50 % mixture of NPK and PM. The cropping pattern, sole pepper, and two cassava cultivars relayed into pepper at 1 MAT were main plots while the fertilizer levels were the subplots. The experiments were replicated three times. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to analyze the data of growth and yield parameters. Fertilizer application significantly (P < 0.05) affected all the characters investigated. The highest fruit yield of pepper (13.6 t/ha.) was obtained from the plots treated with 120N + 80P + 50K kg/ha. The highest cassava tuber yield (24.1 t/ha) was obtained from the plots treated with 6,250 kg PM/ha. The yield of pepper under different fertilizer application was in the order NPK > NPK + PM > PM. The yield (10.1 t/ha) of pepper obtained under ‘Oko Iyawo’ across the fertilizer treatments was 14.4 % greater than the yield (8.7 t/ha) obtained with TMS 30572. All the fertilizer treatments yielded more than the control in the following order: PM > ½ NPK + ½ PM >NPK alone respectively.