Articles >
EFFECT OF POULTRY MANURE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF
LANDRACE SWEET POTATO (Ipomoea batatas L.) IN KAFANCHAN,
NIGERIA
Author(s): Magaji, Y.T., Nicholas G.B. and Akos, I. S
Volume/Issue: Volume 6 , Issue 1 (2026)
ABSTRACT:
The growing demand for sustainable agriculture has prompted the use of organic amendments like poultry manure to improve soil fertility and crop productivity. This study examines the effect of poultry manure on the growth and yield of landrace sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) at the Research and Teaching Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Kaduna State University Kafanchan Campus, during the wet season of 2025. The treatments consisted of 4 levels of poultry manure (0, 2, 4 and 6t/ha) and NPK (15:15:15) at 450kg/ha as treated control. The treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design and replicated three times. Poultry manure and the treated control had no significant influence on growth and yield characters of landrace sweet potato. However, 4t/ha of poultry manure produced the highest yield of 3.80t/ha, corresponding to 54.47% higher than the untreated control. In fact, the tuber yield in the trial is lower than the average yielding of 4t/ha at local farmers’ field in Nigeria. Several factors would have been responsible for the low yield; this may include genetic and environmental factors. It is also not unlikely that unimproved local cultivars often lack the capacity to efficiently utilize nutrient resources due to their sink inelasticity, even though some local cultivars are good. In any case, it can be suggested that farmers in Kafanchan may use 4t/ha of poultry manure for the production of sweet potato, even though further trial is recommended here in order to draw reasonable conclusion.
KEYWORDS:
Seed yam, hydroponics, substrates, leaf-bud cuttings.
