Tomato production using chemical fertilizer and nasute termite mound as a soil amendment in Nigeria

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.