ABSTRACT

An experiment was conducted at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Western farm, to investigate the effect of rice mill waste and poultry manure on some chemical properties of the soil and growth and yield of maize (Oba Super 2). The study was a field experiment, laid out in a randomized complete block design (RDBD) with 3 replicates. The plots were amended with the organic materials at the rates of 0. ton, 2 tons, 4 tons, and 8 tons per hectare. Data on plant height and stem diameter were collected after 2 and 6 weeks of planting, while the length of cobs and 100 seed weight were collected at maturity. Also, soil samples from each of the plots were collected at 1 and 2 months intervals using the soil auger, at a depth of 0-15cm. These were analysed in the laboratory. The result showed that the addition of the organic materials improved the soil chemical properties with the poultry manure alone giving the highest value for all the parameters anaylsed, which include soil pH, available phosphorus and organic carbon with the exception Of total nitrogen which was highest when mixture of rice mill waste and poultry manure were applied. Also, the result showed that both growth and yield parameters increased significantly on the application of the organic materials. The plant parameters measured improved with increased rate of amendment and sampling duration. The ANOVA showed that at P<0.001 the treatment, rate and time were statistically significant, in affecting all the chemical characteristics of the soil, the growth parameters and the yield parameters investigated.