Influence of organic, inorganic and organo-mineral fertilizers on yield and quality of sweet potato (&lt;i&gt;Ipomoea batatas&lt;/i&gt;)

I Kareem,Y Oladosu,S.Y Alasinrin,S.A Kareem,E.A Akinrinde,E.K Eifediyi,O.F Adekola,S.Y Abdulmaliq

doi:10.4314/jasem.v24i1.16

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the yield and quality of sweet potato under the influence inorganic fertilizer (NPK 15:15:15) at the recommended rate of 130kg/ha, organic fertilizer (Pace Setter) at the recommended rate of 3t/ha and organo-mineral fertilizer (combination of NPK 15:15:15 and Pacesetter organic fertilizer) at the rate of 1.5 t/ha. The fresh and dry weights of the samples were taken after which their proximate analyses were done to determine the levels of the quality determinants (moisture content, crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, Vitamin A and ash content) in them. At the end of the experiment, harvesting was done to determine the yield per treatments as well as the quality parameters of the leaves and tubers. It was found that organic fertilizer could increase the quantity of ether extract, crude fibre and vitamin A contents of sweet potato tubers above other fertilizer treatments though organic fertilizer competed with the control in increasing the ash and crude protein contents of sweet potato tubers. However, inorganic fertilizer increased only energy content of the tubers above organic and organo-mineral fertilizer treatments. It is, therefore, concluded that organic fertilizer should be used to increase sweet potato tuber quantity and quality. Keywords: Sweet potato, growth, yield, quality and fertilizer treatments

Highlights

After wheat, rice, maize, Irish potato and barley comes sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) as one of the important food crops in the world
The highest moisture content from tubers was from inorganic fertilizer treated plants followed by organic fertilizer treated plants while the least was recorded from the control plants (Figure 1)
% Moisture Content moisture percentage in the leaves of sweet potato was from inorganic fertilizer treated plants

Summary

Introduction

Rice, maize, Irish potato and barley comes sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) as one of the important food crops in the world. Organic foods are generally considered healthier than conventionally-grown ones, an improved nutritional profile of organic versus conventional crops has not been ascertained (Gennaro and Quaglia, 2003). It is not known whether different cultivation systems may affect the nutrient composition of the final produce. Despite the difficulty in getting any difference between organically or conventionally produced crops as highlighted above, the world is currently moving towards organic production of crops for the discovered and envisaged advantages With this drive, farmers are still faced with the challenges of the bulkiness of organic fertilizer to be used and further gains that could be accrued from it if sacrifice of using it is made. This work evaluated the effectiveness of organic, inorganic and organo-mineral fertilizers in improving yield and quality of sweet potato

Objectives

Methods

Results