EFFECTS OF FERTILIZERS ON SOIL MICROBIAL DIVERSITY, GROWTH AND YIELD OF TWO PASTURE GRASSES
ABSTRACT
A 6 month study was conducted in the screen house and laboratory of the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. The objective was to ascertain the effects of fertilizers on soil microbial diversity growth and yield of two forage grasses. The experiment was set up in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) arrangement. There were 10 factorial treatments, made up from five fertilizers (Control, Anthropogenic liquid waste a (1:3 and 1:6 dilutions), NPK and cattle dung) and two forage grasses (Sorghum almum and Panicum maximum) replicated three times. The parameters measures were sward height, sward regrowth, fresh and dry herbage yields. Serial dilution of the fertilized soils was carried out to enumerate the microbial populations. Generally, Anthropogenic liquid waste (1:3) and NPK(15:15:15) were equal in performance and better than the other fertilizers in terms of herbage growth (sward height and sward regrowth). Anthropogenic liquid waste (1:3) produced the significantly highest fresh and dry herbage yields among the fertilizers. Furthermore Anthropogenic liquid waste (1:3) favoured the highest proliferation of microbes. The favourable response of the grasses and the higher microbial population in the soil treated with Anthropogenic liquid waste implies that this fertilizer contains high quantities of readily available plant nutrients.