Improving Productivity Through Effective Soil Water And Nutrient Management In Liberia

Research on soil amendment and phosphorus fertilizer to increase crop productivity in Liberia has been limited to cereals with less emphasis on rice. A field experiment was therefore carried out at the Central Agricultural Research Institute Suakoko Liberia to improve rice productivity through effective soil water and nutrient management. The experiment consisted of a factorial arrangement of five levels of mineral fertilizer MF five levels of a combination of MF and cattle manure CM and five levels of a combination of MF and poultry manure PM arranged in a randomized complete block design with four 4 replications. The mineral fertilizer consisted of a combination of NPK. The poultry or cattle manure were applied at the rate of 40 kg. Different combinations of N P K at three levels of 90 60 and 120 kgha were used to form sub-treatments. An improved rice cultivar Arica 2 was used as the planting material. At harvest the tallest plant 96.66 cm leaf length 13.050cm maximum grain yield 3.98 tonsha above ground biomass 13.516 tonsha fresh grain plus straw weight 9.001 was recorded from PM MF1. Number of effective tillers per hill 13.52 the longest panicle 23.11 cm and panicle weight were found in plot supplied with PMMF4. CMMF3 produced the highest weight of 1000 seeds 31.93 g ha-1. Although the highest biological yield was recorded from PM MF1 treatment but statistically similar result were found from PMMF2 PMMF4 and PMMF5 treatments. It was obvious that yield of rice can be increased substantially with the judicious application of organic manure with chemical fertilizer.