World Bank assisted National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) - University of Port Harcourt
Abstract
Ten soil samples were collected with a 9mm Dutch auger along two
transects for six months for the purposes of investigating the effects
of cassava wastewater on the physico-chemical characteristics of soils
around a cassava processing plant in a rural community in the Niger
Delta. It was observed that the addition of cassava wastewater to the
soil resulted to changes in the parameters. Mean Mg level of the soil
samples was lower than the mean in the control soil samples.
Correlation analysis shows that soil pH influenced CN- (r = 0.18); K (r
= 0.17); Ca (r = 0.97); Mg (r = 0.13); Na (r = 0.03); P (r = 0.08); N
(r = 0.40); Organic Carbon (r = 0.08) and organic matter (r = 0.06).
The cyanide levels in the soils were found to be higher than the
recommended limits for agriculture and other purposes. Also, amongst
the exchangeable bases, Mg was significantly influenced by cassava
wastewater discharges. The implications of these variations on
agriculture and other activities have been appraised. \ua9 JASE