The experiments were conducted at the Department of Crop Science Analytical Laboratory and green

house of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Experiment one was an analysis of the
nutrient contents of fermented and unfermented plant waste materials using the official method of
analysis of Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC). Experiment two was on assessment of the
effects of plant wastes and different forms of organic manure fermented for one or two months on the
growth and yield of okra plants. The experiment was a split-split plot experiment laid out in a completely
randomized design (CRD) with four replications. The factors were plant waste (four), particle size (two),
and form (four), giving a total of thirty-two treatment combinations. The plant wastes were rice husks,
moringa pod husks, grass, and control (no manure).The two particle sizes were 1.00 mm and 0.63 mm
and the four types of manure were biol, biosol, biol and biosol combination and no manure. Data were
collected on; number of leaves per plant, number of leaves/treatment, plant height/treatment, plant
height, stem girth, stem girth/ treatment, seed weight per fruit, fruit weight, fruit girth, 100 seed weight,
number of seeds per plant, average number of seeds/treatment. Data were subjected to analysis of
variance (ANOVA). Mean separation was done using Fishers least significant difference. Significance was
accepted at (P < 0.05).

Moringa pod had the highest nitrogen (1.30%), phosphorus (16.38 ppm), potassium (0.54 ppm) and fat
content (2.65%). The biols (P < 0.05) gave the highest percentage moisture of 87.4% for rice husk,
83.28% for moringa pod husk and 85% for grass. The least percentage ash was 0.84%, 0.87% and 0.94%
respectively. Fat content was considerably higher in the raw wastes than in the fermented wastes at
both one month and two months of fermentation. Moisture content was generally low at 6.4%, 7.0%,
and 6.85% for moringa pod, grass and rice husk, respectively. The liquid (biol) of the wastes fermented
for one month differed significantly ( P < 0.05) from both the biosol and the biol + biosol combination in
improving plant height, number of leaves and stem girth of okra plant starting from three weeks after
planting. Thus, biol gave the best result for fruit length (5.44 cm), fruit weight(0.78 g), fruit girth(4.52
cm), number of seeds (10.33), 100 seed weight (4.32 g) and seed weight per fruit (0.46 g)( at P < 0.05)
compared to biosol that gave fruit length (3.88cm), fruit weight(0.38 g), fruit girth(2.92 cm), number of
seeds(5.50), 100 seed weight(2.98g) and seed weight per fruit(0.19g). For wastes fermented for two
months, the biol also gave the best result for fruit length (5.87 cm), fruit weight (0.63 g), fruit girth (4.10
cm), number of seeds (12.29), 100 seed weight (2.63 g) and seed weight per fruit (0.36 g),( P < 0.05),
compared to the biosol that gave fruit length (1.33 cm), fruit weight(0.07 g), fruit girth(0.83 cm), number
of seeds(1.33), 100 seed weight(0.67 g) and seed weight per fruit(0.03 g)( P < 0.05). Among the three
plant wastes, the solid wastes (biosols) of rice husk improved okra fruit length (4.40 cm) more than grass
(2.21 cm) and moringa pod husk (2.71 cm). Particle sizes have no significant effect (p< 0.05) on the
growth and yield of okra. The liquid wastes (biols) of moringa pod husk gave the best growth and yield.
Generally, plant growth and yield were better for wastes fermented for one month compared to wastes
fermented for two months (P < 0.05).

The environment, human health and agricultural practices are intrinsically linked: environmental quality
is crucially important to agriculture because agricultural waste has the potential to harm human and
pollute the environment. This means that farmers have a duty to ensure that they do not treat, keep or
dispose of agricultural waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human
(SEPA, 2005). In spite of the intensive use of inputs for about half a century in Nigerian agriculture, the
yield gap in various crops still remains large even after following the best practices. The agricultural
lands continue to shrink and there is a greater threat to global environment and soil resources. These
threats are erosion of biodiversity and change of climate marching towards desertification and
environmental, soil, air, and water pollution. Hence there is now a greater need to maintain the
crop/soil environment by popularizing eco-friendly and cost effective organic manures (Chandrakala,
2008).

Global awareness of health and environmental issues is increasing in recent years and there is a growing
demand for organically grown food products worldwide. Before the green revolution, cultivation was
mostly by natural and traditional farming methods which involved natural methods of maintaining crop
productivity and controlling crop pests. Consequent upon the green revolution, the use of high yielding
and fertilizer responsive varieties and cultivation system were intensified and this had prompted the use
of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides led to several
harmful effects on soil, water and the environment causing their pollution and decline in the
productivity of the soil on which crops depend (Chandrakala, 2008).

A number of alternatives have been muted as means of curtailing this harmful trend, chief amongst
them is a return to the traditional farming methods that use locally available raw materials as manure
and the more refined organic farming system.

In fact, organic agriculture is a holistic means of farming with the aim of conserving natural resources
through good agronomic practices and the use of locally available low cost inputs in order to maintain
soil fertility and conserve its rich bio-diversity to provide safe clean environment and achieve economic
sustainability.

Due to the prohibitive cost of chemical fertilizer, majority of Nigerian small-scale

farmers do not apply the recommended fertilizer doses. They use indigenous organic materials as
source of nutrients. These organics are bulky in nature but, contain reasonable amounts of nutrients.

Organic manure is therefore the backbone of organic agriculture. Apart from its bulkiness it has been
well documented that it is a slow release fertilizer with long residual effect (Chandrakala, 2008), this
implies that it has a disadvantage on short term annual crops that may require quick release of plant
nutrients to enable them complete their life cycle. This has necessitated research in the area of reducing
its bulkiness and exploring means of hastening the release of the enormous nutrient trapped in this raw
material. Apart from boosting crop yield, organic manure increases the organic matter content of soils
thereby buffering the soil against changes in climate.

Important source of this organic manure include the biofuel technology, waste management plants,
municipal solid wastes (MSW), landfills and composts (Sanjeet et al., 2010).

The biofuel technology aims at maximizing the energy potentials of agricultural wastes by using them in
the production of biofuel and biodiesels and in return produces a digestate (organic manure) that is very
rich, well cured and environmentally friendly which could be used in crop production. Hence, this work
was aimed at maximising the use of plant wastes as organic manures in various forms as obtained from
biogas production process with the following objectives toevaluate the nutrient contents of three plant
organic waste materials before and after fermentation and.

2. assess the efficacy of the three forms of organic manure (biol – the liquid part of the fermented
waste, biosol – the solid part of the fermented waste and bio+biosol combination) and three plant
wastes (rice husk, grass and moringa pod husk) on the growth and yield of okra