Abstract:
Soil compaction has deletenous effects on crop production by preventing soil
to realize its full productive potentials even if crop residue is applied. The
study sought to evaluate the efficiency of using compost to ameliorate soil
compaction. A research was carried out during the major and minor season of
2019 at the Teaching and Research Farm of the School of Agriculture
University of Cape Coast, in the Central Region of Ghana. The experiments
were arranged in a randomized complete Block design (RCBD) with four
replications. The four different levels of compaction that were imposed were
NTP, 3 mild, moderate and high they were used to assess the effect of
compaction on the growth of plant. The different types of compost used were
maize compost (MC), cassava compost (CC) and pineapple compost (PC). The
composts treatments were the sub-plots whilst the main plots were the various
forms of soil compaction imposed. Composts were replicated 4 times in each
block. In total, there were 48 sub-plots (4 main blocks 3 plots 4
replications). The physical (porosity, bulk density, HC and moisture content)
and chemical (pH, CEC, OC, Tot.N and Avai.P) properties of the soil were
measured and data collected was subjected to analysis of variance using
GenStat Statistical package (12th Edition). Data gathered from the various
blocks indicate that regardless of the level of soil compaction, maize compost
alleviated soil compaction compared to other composts. In addition, maize
compost resulted in the highest grain yield.
