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Performance evaluation of improvised organic fertilizers in the yield of cash crops: Its economic contribution to farmers in Tawi-Tawi province the southern Philippines

Edwin M. Puhagan

Today’s farming activities relies on fertilizers. Fertilizers are becoming more important and common resource in today’sfarming society as many farmers and individuals use it frequently in their farms be it small-large scale faming. But, it iswell known that fertilizers can greatly damage the environment as a result of the contamination and toxic waste pollutionin soils it creates more particularly the commercialized inorganic fertilisers.One of the most damaging yet poorly managed types of pollution caused by inorganic fertilizers is soil pollution andcontamination which can be caused by a wide variety of factors such as improper use and over use of chemical fertilizersover the period of time in a particular place. Fertilizer pollution and contamination in soil can go on to severely impactplants, animals and eventually humans which totally destroys ecological diversity.Bioremediation is an effective, efficient and increasingly popular method of removing contaminants from polluted soil.This is one of the identified methods that degrade pollutants with naturally occurring organisms. This can permanentlyremove the pollution at a very least expenses unlike the commonly used methods.This contains naturally occurring organisms that can degrade pollutants in soils which can be enthused by a wide varietyof collected materials capable of introducing more nutrients to the soils and therefore stimulate more pollutant degradingorganisms, as demonstrated and confirmed in several studies the positive effects of bioremediation.This study contemplatesimprovised organic fertilizers as one bioremediation process to help regain soil fertility and ecological stability of thefarming environment.However, the possibility of using improvised organic fertilisers which are known to bring together essential nutrients tothe soil has not been heavily researched though this solution holds a lot of potentials as it could solve two significant globalissues (pollution and food waste).Sea Urchins Spines, Banana Peels, Papaya Peels Extract and Fish remains are common food wastes that commonly serveno further purpose once the food is consumed. A bioremediation solution that utilises these materials could significantlyhelp withstand economic and ecological stability of the farming environment.This study gives feedback on the importanceof the improvised organic fertilizers as it enhances economic and ecological contribution to both farmers and farming.These were measured on the growth and yield two common crops (corn and peanuts) and incomes of the farmers.Four kinds of cash crop used in this experimental study to include peanut, bellpepper and string beans distributed to fourdifferent concentrations of improvised organic fertilizers such as “ConcentratedMixture of Ripe Banana Peels and PapayaExtract for peanut, Concentrated Mixture of Triturated Sea Urchin Spines and Basil Extract for Bellpepper, Concentratedmixture of Algae and Wild Basil Extract for Corn, and Concentrated mixture of FFAA and Seaweed Extract for Stringbeans”.An RCBD (Randomised Complete Block Design) was used to analyse the data where it resulted good responses of cropsin terms of yield and thus increased the income of the local farmers. As the yield of each crop increases, the income tendsto increase as well.