Economic analysis of poultry manure and NPK fertilizer on the performance of pepper relay cropped with cassava

Abstract

A split -layout was adopted in conducting the trial on the effects of NPK fertilizer and poultry manure on the performance of pepper relay cropped with Oko Iyawo ( a local variety
of cassava) in Ogbomoso during 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 cropping seasons using PoultryManure (PM) and NPK fertilizer : no fertilizer, 120N + 80P + 50K kg/ha, poultry manure(PM alone) 6,250 kg/ha and 50 % to 50 % mixture of NPK and PM. The cropping pattern,which was a local variety of cassava (Oko Iyawo) relayed into pepper at 1 month aftertransplanting (MAT) was the main plot while the fertilizer treatments formed the subplots.The experiments were replicated three times. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were usedto analyze the data of growth and yield parameters. Partial budget analysis was used todetermine the economic benefits of the treatments. All the fertilizers significantly (P < 0.05)affected the yields of both pepper and cassava. The highest (13.6t/ha)fruit yield of pepper was obtained from the plots treated with 120N + 80P + 50K kg/ha. The highest (25.6t/ha)cassava tuber yield was obtained from the plots treated with 6,250 kg PM/ha. in both years. The yield of pepper under different fertilizer application was in the order NPK > (NPK +PM) > PM.All the fertilizer treatments yielded more than the control by 36 %, 37 % and 35.6% in the following order: NPK alone, ½ NPK + ½ PM and PM alone respectively. Thetreatment with NPK fertilizer gave the highest net benefit of N402, 319/ha followed bytreatment with ½ NPK + ½ PM that gave a net benefit of N375, 680. The use of PM alone asorganic fertilizer gave an appreciable increase (68.7 %) in the net benefit compared to zeroapplication of fertilizer. The cost involvement in the treatment of ½ NPK + ½ PM was not tangibly higher than that of poultry manure alone(3.7%) but lower than NPK-treated plants. Its adoption could be considered for economicreasons. Besides, the use of NPK + PM would alleviate the problem of bulkiness that isusually associated with organic fertilizer use and also reduce the cost of production compared to the use of inorganic fertilizer alone.