MSc

The study entitled “Validation of liquid organic manures and their effect
on crop productivity” was conducted in the Department of Agronomy, College of
Horticulture, Vellanikkara during 2016 - 2017 to find out the shelf life of fish
jaggery extract and egg extract and their effect on growth and yield of okra. The
study consisted of two experiments.
The objective of the first experiment was to study the characteristics of
two liquid organic manures, fish jaggery extract and egg extract, which were
stored for 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 and 24 weeks. Fresh preparations as well as
the stored samples were analyzed for various quality parameters. Both liquid
manures were highly acidic in nature with pH values ranging from 3.05 to 3.33 in
fish jaggery extract and 2.89 to 4.88 in egg extract. The N, P and K contents in
fresh fish jaggery extract were 1.04 %, 0.042 % and 0.29 % and the corresponding
values in fresh egg extract were 0.22 %, 0.006 % and 0.23 %. There was no
change in N content of fish jaggery extract due to storage, while the highest N
content in egg extract was observed in 6 weeks after storage (1.11 %). The highest
P content was in 10 weeks old preparation of fish jaggery extract (1220 ppm) and
24 weeks old preparation of egg extract (440 ppm). Ten weeks (0.73 %) and two
weeks old preparation (0.71 %) of fish jaggery extract and four weeks old egg
extract (0.44 %) had higher K content. Secondary and micronutrients were also
present in both liquid manures.
The total microbial population viz., bacteria and fungi were significantly
influenced by the storage period. The highest bacterial count was observed in 10
weeks old fish jaggery extract (27.33 x 102 cfu ml-1) and 6 weeks old egg extract
(23.67 x 102 cfu ml-1). Fungal population was the highest in 12 weeks old fish
jaggery extract (10.00 x 103 cfu ml-1) and 6 weeks old egg extract (27.67 x 103 cfu
ml-1). Actinomycetes and Escherichia coli were absent in fish jaggery extract and
egg extract, even at 24 weeks of storage.

The second part of the study was a field experiment on “Effect of fish
jaggery extract and egg extract on growth and yield of okra”. The treatments
consisted of soil application of liquid organic manures (10 % solution @1 L/plant:
T1, T2, T5 and T6), foliar spray (@ 0.2 %: T3, T4, T7 and T8), water spray (T9) and
manuring and fertilizer application as per Package of Practices Recommendations,
KAU (T10). Organic manures were applied as per the Package of Practices
Recommendations (Ad hoc) for organic farming to all the treatments except in
T10. Soil application of liquid organic manures was done at 20 DAS and foliar
spray at fortnightly intervals (5 times) was started at 20 DAS.
Soil application of two weeks old preparation of fish jaggery extract (10%)
produced the highest number of leaves at 60 DAS (25.40), total dry matter
production at final harvest (5.66 t ha-1), fruit yield per plant (403.54 g) as well as
total yield (22.42 t ha-1) resulting in the highest gross return, net return and B: C
ratio (2.33).
The results revealed the possibility of storing fish jaggery extract upto one
month and egg extract upto one and half month after preparation without quality
deterioration. In field experiment, soil application as well as foliar spray of fish
jaggery extract or egg extract helped to enhance the soil and crop productivity.