Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

Utilization of biofertilizer has been identified as an alternative to chemical fertilizer in increasing soil fertility and crop production for sustainable crop production. The evaluation of the performance of biofertilizer obtained from the anaerobic digestion of Zaria abattoir Cow dung relative to that of NPK fertilizer was carried out in this study with respect to changes to soil properties and the growth of Zea mays and Sorghum bicolor. The application of treatments included control (no fertilizer), NPK fertilizer and biofertilizer. The results obtained for both the soil analysis and crop growth rate and yield were subjected to a two way Analysis of Variance at 95% confidence level. Except for the pH value, the results showed that there was significance difference between the values of Total Nitrogen, Available Phosphorus and Potassium before and after cultivation for all the treatments (p=0.256>0.05 and p=0.00±0.504 and 32±2.83, 5.52±0.231 and 29.5±1.87, 1.53±0.543 respectively. The yield of guinea corn from the biofertilizer treatment plot [31±2.83 stalks (3.616±0.5012 kg)] was also comparable to that of the NPK treatment plot [29.5±1.85 stalks (2.655±0.002 kg)] and was higher than that of the plot without treatment [27.561±1.87 stalks (1.333±0.001 kg)]. The statistical analysis revealed that the effect of treatment was significant in the growth and yield of both Maize and Guinea corn. The study concluded that biofertilizer from cow dung can be a viable alternative to NPK fertilizer for the production of Zea mays and Sorghum bicolor.