Abstract:
A local soil amendment, nasute termite mound, was compared with chemical fertilizer (N.PjOjKjO
: 15:15:15) for its ability to improve tomato {lycopersicum esculentum L.) yield. Tomato seedlings were
grown on top soil only, top soil fertilized with NPK and a 3:7 kg crushed top soil mixture. The mound had
significantly higher percentages of day and silt contents. The chemical analysis indicated that the total N%
organic C%, available P (ppm), and effective CEC (Cmol(+) kg'), were increased by 33.6%, 47.8%, 34%,
and 20.1% respecting in crushed mound over top soil. Crushed mound-top soil mixture significantly
increased fruit yield and plant dry weight of tomato compared to top soil only. Fruit yields were 95,88.6 and
54.5g per pot for crushed mound-top soil mixture, NPK and top soil only, respectively. Total dry matter of
tomato grown on NPK fertilizer mixed with top soil was 5.8% which was significantly lower than that of
crushed mound-top soil mixture. Crushed mound-top soil mixture and NPK fertilized top soil induced
similar improvement of fruit and plant dry weight of tomato. However, production of tomato with crushed
mound-top soil mixture had greater Output-Input ratio than using chemical fertilizers. Hence crushed
nasute termite mound could be suggested as a cheap and effective soil amendment for resource-poor
farmers.