Utilization of water hyacinth into vermicompost for cultivation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) as its management tool in Lake Tana, Northwest  Ethiopia

Belay, Tadillo

dc.contributor.author	Belay, Tadillo
dc.date.accessioned	2021-11-22T06:42:21Z
dc.date.available	2021-11-22T06:42:21Z
dc.date.issued	2021-11-22
dc.identifier.uri	http://ir.bdu.edu.et/handle/123456789/12917
dc.description.abstract	Water hyacinth has adverse impacts on human health, economic development, environment due to its rapid spread and ecological adaptability. Water hyacinth has been found to be used as vermicomposting raw material. Hence, the present study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the effectiveness of water hyacinth vermicompost on tomato physiochemical characteristics and soil fertility at local level. Vermicomposting experiment was done using Eisenia fetida with four treatments. The productivity and the chemical analysis of vermicompost were recorded after 110 days. On the other hand, agronomic field experiment was done with six treatments. A randomized complete block design approach was applied for the two field experiments to control variation in an experiment by accounting for spatial effects. All data were collected through direct observation and laboratory experiments accordingly. The combination of water hyacinth sludge and cow manure had the highest vermicompost productivity output followed by that of water hyacinth root and cow manure. The highest electrical conductivity mean value was measured in vermicompost of water hyacinth root plus shoot and cow manure. Also, the highest pH value was recorded in vermicompost produced from the mixture of water hyacinth root and cow manure. Besides, application of 10 ton ha-1 vermicompost dose gives highest mean difference of stem diameter, number of branches, area of leaf, fruit number, fruit weight, fruit length and fruit diameter of tomato plant compared to the all other treatments including the control group. The application of this dose was also better in tomato fruit quality measures done in this study. In this study it is evident that water hyacinth with cow manure in predetermined quantity can be used for the production of vermicompost. It can be also concluded that application of 10 ton ha-1 vermicompost was the most suitable dose for improving tomato vegetative and fruit physiochemical characteristics seen in this study. Therefore, it is recommended to use water hyacinth vermicompost for enhancing tomato productivity and fruit quality. Also, it is vital to use vermicomposting as a non-polluting approach in integrated management of the weed in Lake Tana.	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.subject	Biology	en_US
dc.title	Utilization of water hyacinth into vermicompost for cultivation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) as its management tool in Lake Tana, Northwest Ethiopia	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US