Title : Nutrient uptake and mineral composition response of amaranthus species grown on acidic soil to animal manure amendments and micorrhizae enhancement in Eastern Cape province, South Africa
Abstract:
Although Amaranthus is among the most popularly grown and consumed nutritious indigenous leafy vegetable in Africa, it is rarely cultivated in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa but gathered from the wild. Farmers in the Eastern Cape are involved in production of exotic vegetables but are mostly challenged by soil acidity. Lime is usually required to ameliorate acidic soils but most of these smallholder farmers do not afford it and other mineral fertilizers because these are unaffordable to them given their limited financial resource status. As a result, they apply animal manures to address challenges pertaining to soil fertility. When applied to acidic soils, animal manures have been observed to have an ameliorative effect that can make soil nutrients such as phosphorus, a nutrient which is mostly unavailable in acidic soils, to be more available to plants. Another affordable alternative towards making phosphorus more available to plants in acidic soils is inoculation of plants with Arbuscular Mychorrhizal Fungi (AMF). A study was therefore conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of augmenting acidic soil with different animal manures namely: cattle, sheep, poultry, goat and mineral fertilizers i.e. NPK and lime as well as inoculating with AMF, used singly or in combinations, on nutrient uptake and mineral composition of two Amaranthus species namely: A. hybridus and A. Cruentus. Fertilization of plants with animal manures singly or in combinations with NPK fertilizer and inoculation with AMF improved both nutrient uptake and mineral composition of Amaranthus species to be comparable with those fertilized with recommended NPK (mineral) fertilizer and lime. These plants performed better than the unfertilized and those inoculated with AMF only.
