Abstract
The inclusion of native trees in mine land reclamation has been promoted over the years yet that of highvalue multipurpose species for people’s livelihoods has been overlooked. Also, studies utilizing human excreta (HE), i.e. fecal matter, (FM) and human urine fertilizer HUF), and wood ash (WA) in land reclamation are scarce. Yet, these are indispensable in areas with a limited supply of organic materials and high demand for natural resources. This study evaluated the effects of HE and WA on the growth and establishment of Ficus thonningii Blume (ficus) in a pegmatite-rich tantalum Technosol. Hardwood cuttings of ficus from homesteads in Western Rwanda were planted in 20.4 × 19 cm diameter pots containing 5 kg forest soil (FS) and 6 kg Technosol. Five treatments including No amendment; HUF alone (100 mL/pot); HUF+WA (100 mL + 60 g/pot); FM (200 g/pot); and FM+WA (200 g + 60 g/pot) were prepared in ten replicates each. Plant height, number of leaves, shoot and root biomass were determined after five and seven months after planting. The HE andWA treatments significantly increased (P = 0.003) ficus height (FS = 39 – 42 cm and Technosol = 31 – 34 cm) after seven months. Shoot biomass weights ranged from 17 – 21 g in the FS and 10 – 16 g in the Technosol. Ficus exhibited an efficient rooting system that stabilized the loose particles of the Technosol, suggesting the potential of using ficus, HE, and WA indegraded mine soil reclamation in future research. Keywords: Fecal matter; Human urine fertilizer; Root and shoot biomass; Pegmatite
Highlights
Studies involving human excreta and wood ash (WA) in mine land reclamation are scarce many have been used for crop production (Larney and Angers, 2012)
The fecal matter (FM) and WA were enriched with phosphorus (Table 1) and had about 10% OM content while the human urine fertilizer (HUF) had nitrogen content similar to the typical global average per capita fecal nitrogen per annum (Jönsson et al, 2004)
The hygienic quality of the human excreta revealed that no viable E. coli, Salmonella, and Shigella were detected in the excreta
Summary
Experimental site, soils and amendments used: The experiment was conducted in the Gatumba Mining District (longitudes 29°37” and 29°40” E and latitudes 1°53” and 1°56” S) in the Western Province of Rwanda. The FM, which had been dehydrated and composted with rice straw, sawdust and WA to deactivate pathogens, was obtained from a urine-diverting toilet in Kigali, Rwanda Studies show that this method sanitizes human excreta for safe use (Jönsson et al, 2004). Residual soil properties and plant biomass were not conducted because the study focused initially on the establishment of ficus in the degraded pegmatite-rich Technosol. The plants were gently removed from the pots (Fig. 2) and the soil particles are shaken off from the roots. The roots were separated from the shoots, cleaned, and dried in an oven at 70°C to determine the oven-dry weight This was repeated at seven months after planting. A two-way ANOVA was used to process the data using Soil and Treatment as the independent factors with 5% level of significance under missing data mode in SPSS version 20 (IBM-SPSS Inc., USA)
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