Evaluation of agronomic characters of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L) Gaertn) as influenced by poultry manure in the Northern Guinea Savanna agroecology, Nigeria

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm, Taraba State College of Agriculture Jalingo in 2017 to evaluate the effect of poultry manure on agronomic parameters of finger millet. The treatments evaluated were poultry manure compost at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 t/ha. The treatments were replicated three times and arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). The results obtained showed that finger millet responded positively to poultry manure treatment in all agronomic parameters evaluated with the best values obtained at 8 t poultry manure/ha. Finger millet plants in this treatment were tallest (45.20 cm), with highest number of tillers/plant (7.90), highest LAI (52.19), as well as lowest number of days to 50 % flowering (103.13), highest number of spikes/plant (18.09), longest spikes (4.65 cm) and highest grain yield (3.04 t/ha). This performance trend indicates that the best agronomic parameters could be obtained for finger millet by applying 8 t poultry manure/ha or more in the study area.