SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF AVAILABLE FE ON LITHOSEQUENCE GROWN TO TARO IN SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIAN | Jou

Fe is a critical micronutrient for taro (Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott), a key carbohydrate staple food in Nigeria and the tropical regions, to grow, yield, and quality. Using the kriging technique, the spatial distribution of Fe on a lithosequence from the late Tertiary era (> 5,000 years ago) in southern Nigeria, where taro is a prominent crop in the farming system, was estimated. Coastal plain sands, shale, and sandstone are the parent materials, with a total area of 4.28 million hectares (m ha). 69 soil samples from 0 to 30 cm depth were collected and tested at geo-referenced locations. Geostatistics was used to quantitatively determine the spatial distribution of accessible Fe using data from soil analyses. The findings revealed that roughly 1.90 million ha (44.4%) of sandstone is low in accessible Fe ( 20 mg/kg). However, accessible Fe levels are moderate in over half of the study region (53.5 percent, or 2.29 million hectares), which is dominated by coastal plain sands and shale. Increase the productivity and quality of cocoyam corms and cormels by using Fe micronutrient as a foliar treatment or adding it into NPK fertilisers, as well as using integrated (organo-mineral) plant nutrient management.

Please see the link :- https://www.ikprress.org/index.php/JOGAE/article/view/515