Recycling of organic residues in compost to improve coastal sandy soil properties and cabbage shoot yield in Benin

Recycling of municipal organic waste in compost is a potential approach to addressing waste disposal problems and soil fertility management. We studied during two years experiment whether composts of municipal organic waste improved with chicken dejection (MOW+Cdj), municipal organic waste improved with cottonseeds and chicken dejection (MOW+Cdj+Csd), and maize stover residues improved with chickendejection (MSR+Cdj) may be an alternative to chemical fertilizer to improve infertile littoral sandy soil and cabbage shoot yield. 20 t ha-1 of each type of compost were applied according to a completely randomized blocdesign with five replications. The C:N ratio of the composts ranged between 10.5 and 12.1 quite favourable for microbiological processes in the soil. The addition of cottonseeds to the compost has improved its physical and chemical properties. Soil available phosphorus, CEC and exchangeable cations were significantly (P (MSR+Cdj) > (MOW+Cdj) > Control. 6.42 tha-1 and 7.63 t/ha of cabbage shoot yield were obtained in 2002 and 2003 respectively with the compost MOW+Cdj+Csd which is significantly higher (

Inter-relationships between hydrogen and carbon contents of biomass fuels and the calorific values

Empirical relationships between hydrogen and carbon contents and the calorific values of rice husks, cotton see-ds, jatropha seeds, palm kernel shells and cashew shells were investigated. The experimental data indicated higher correlation coefficient between calorific values and hydrogen content than between calorific value and carbon content, as compared with Tillman predictions. Therefore, the calorific values can be estimated based on hydrogen content of the biomass fuel