Investigation of Environmental and Economic Benefits Of Bioslurry From Coffee Husk Relative to Chemical Fertilizer
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Date
2014-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
AAU
Abstract
Agriculture dominates the Ethiopian economy. It is the major supplier of raw materials to food
processing, beverage and textile industries. Application of fertilizer is one of the major
interventions made by the government to increase the productivity of the sector. The government
focuses on productivity improvement of smallholder agriculture through diffusion of fertilizers
and improved seeds. However, the price of chemical fertilizer is increasing from time to time
which results in shortage of the supply and unaffordable to smallholder farmers.
The objective of the study was to (i) to see the effect of bioslurry from coffee husk on the macro
nutrients of the soil (ii) to assess the influence of bioslurry from coffee husk on soil organic
carbon content (iii) to compare the effect of bio slurry on yield and yield components of the test
crop (iv) To compare the economic benefit of bio slurry application from yield perspective.
In order to achieve the stated objectives, a pot study was conducted under greenhouse condition.
Seven treatments were designed with combined and sole application rates of bioslurry and urea
to 5 kg soil pot
-1
using wheat as a test crop.
The results of the study revealed that combined and sole application of the bioslurry with
chemical fertilizer positively increased the yield, yield component of the test crop and organic
carbon soil. The conjugate application of bioslurry with chemical fertilizer at (3.1m
bioslurry
+62 kg urea) ha
-1
gave the highest yield (4368.2 kgha
-1
) and highest spike length was also
recorded with this treatment. The high application rate of bioslurry at (6.2m
3
) increased the
soil organic carbon content over 100% compared to the control without any amendment. The
simple economic calculation based on economic efficiency indicated that the combined
application of bioslurry with chemical fertilizer at (3.1 m
3
+62 kg urea) ha-
1
gave a net benefit
of 23, 460.8 ETB.
The study showed that the appropriate utilization of bioslurry as soil amendment not only
increases soil fertility but also plays a great role in alleviation of climate change through
increment of soil organic carbon which in turn serves as a carbon pool of planet earth.
Description
Keywords
soil, organic carbon, carbon pool, soil fertility