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ASSESING THE EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZERS ON THE SEVERITY OF SELECTED PESTS ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF OKRA

This study was conducted to assess the effect of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the severity of selected pests on the growth and yield of okra plant production under the influence of organic and inorganic fertilizer. Particularly, it examined the NPK and cow dang manure on the growth response of okra, the effect of NPK and cow dang manure on the prevalence of green peach aphids and okra pod borers in okra and their effect of on the yield of okra. A randomized complete block design with four treatments T1=5kg of, T2=50g of NPK, T3= mixture of 25g of NPK and 2.5kg of Cow dang then T4= control, no treatment measuring 12x 12 meters in length and width was established. These treatments were replicated 4 times. The experiment was set for two periods from August to December 2019 and January to April 2020 corresponding to wet and dry seasons of production respectively, at Equator Valley Farm, Nkozi sub-county in Mpigi district. Growth, pests and yield parameters were measured. ANOVA at 0.1%, 1% and 5% significance level was performed using GenStat 14 version. Before planting, fertilizers (both organic and inorganic) were weighed equally to avoid bias and incorporated in to the soil. This was achieved by following the design to ensure that fertilizers are applied in their rightful plots. Organic and inorganic manure i.e. cow dang and NPK were prepared mixed in the ratio of 1:1 i.e. half of both fertilizer were combined together. Study was done under Randomized complete block design. Data collection was done at 2, 4, and 4 weeks after two weeks from planting on the plant agronomic traits plant height, severity of green peach aphids, severity of pod borer, incidence level green peach aphids, and yield i.e. number of pod per plant. The result was analyzed using GenStat software 14th edition. NPK treatment produced better results were obtained in season 2, in terms of plant height (120.45). meanwhile cow dang emerged the best performance i.e. severity of green peach aphids with the least mean value (1.1), severity of pod borer (1.46), incidence level of green peach aphids (20%), incidence level of pod borer (20%) and on plant yield/ number of pods per plant (23.67 pods). These were followed by, combination of NPK and cow dang, and NPK alone performed poorly in the experiment while control was observed to produce least result. It is therefore recommendable that poor resourced farmers should ensure that they adopt to use of organic fertilizer as it is more efficient in insect pest regulation as well as fertilizing the soil to obtained reasonable yield in okra production.

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Author: luate lumaya
Contributed by: asbat digital library
Institution: uganda martyrs university
Level: university
Sublevel: under-graduate
Type: course work