Use of selected agro-industrial biomass for enhancing seed nitrogen, ash and crude protein quality of Amaranthus viridis. L

The effect of selected agro-industrial biomass of woodash, spent grain, cocoa husk, rice bran and sawdust applied solely and supplemented with goat, pig and poultry manure to improve on the seed nitrogen, ash and crude protein quality of four crops of Amaranthus was investigated at Akure in the rainforest zone of Nigeria. The 22 treatments were applied at 6t/ha a.i with a reference treatment (400 kg/ha NPK 15-15-15) and a control treatment, replicated four times and arranged in a randomized complete design. The results showed that these biomasses increased the seed N, ash and crude protein of manranthus significantly (P 0.05) compared to the control treatment. The supplement of woodash, rice bran, spent grain and sawdust with goat, pig and poultry manure increased consistently the seed N and crude protein when compared to their sole forms. The sole and supplemented agro-industrial biomass had higher values of amaranthus seed ash than NPK except that of seed N and crude protein. Cocoa husk treatment had the best value of seed N (3.41%) followed by woodash (3.17%), spent grain (1.54%), sawdust (1.05%) and rice bran (0.14%) respectively. Spent grain gave the highest value of amaranthus seed ash (10.44%) followed by woodash (10.04%), cocoa husk (6.44%), rice bran (5.93%) and sawdust (5.71%). Finally, the sole and supplemented forms of agro-industrial biomass are very fertilizer materials for enhancing seed N, ash and crude protein of amaranthus