EFFECT OF CASSAVA AND PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENTS ON SOIL PHYSIC-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN CONTROLLING TITHONIA DIVERSIFOLIA AND MIMOSA INVISA

EFFECT OF CASSAVA AND PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENTS ON SOIL PHYSIC-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN CONTROLLING TITHONIA DIVERSIFOLIA AND MIMOSA INVISA

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

Weeds remain one of the major constraints to agricultural production in developed and developing countries, despite the progress made in weed management. Several weed species continue to interfere seriously with crops, reducing their yields and quality. Besides, weeds are invaders, exotic, colonizers (Joshi et al., 2001; Coblents et al., 2002) and they spread out rapidly in areas where they colonize (Norgroove et al., 2007).

Tithonia diversifolia (Mexican Sun flower) family Asteraceae is a fast growing weed that tolerates heat and drought and can rapidly form large herbaceous shrubs (CABI, 2014). The weed is a native of Mexico and Central America. It is adaptable to most soils, and found in disturbed areas, abandoned and waste lands, along roadsides and water ways and on cultivated farmlands (Olabode et al., 2007; GISD, 2012). It abundance and adaptability coupled with its rapid growth rate makes it a serious weed for plantation and arable agriculture.

DESCRIPTION

Tithonia diversifolia is 2-3m (6.6-9.8 ft) in height with upright and sometimes ligneous stalks in the form of woody shrubs. The large, showy flowers are yellow to orange colored and 5-15cm wide and 10-30cm long. Leaves are sub-ovate, serrate, acute 10 to 4cm long, simply or mostly 3-7 lobed, somewhat glandular, and slightly grayish beneath. The seeds are achenes, 4-angled, and 5mm long. The seeds are spread by winds. The leaves of the plant alternate in sides they grow on, which is where the plant gets the name diversifolia. This is accompanied by flowers which are yellow in color and range from 6-13 cm in length. It can grow throughout the year and its seeds are spread through way of wind, water, and animals (GISD,2012; CABI, 2014).

BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION

Scientific classification

Kingdom plantae

Order asterales

Family asteracea

Genus tithonia

Species diversifolia

Growing condition of Tithonia diversifolia

Tithonia diversifolia can grow in many different environmental conditions. It has a moderate drought tolerance. It is ideally grown in areas with an annual rainfall ranging from 1000-2000 mm and a temperature of 15-31 degrees Celsius. This plant does not require a large amount of nutrients because it is able to increase the amount of essential nutrients in the soil itself. As a weed, it spreads rapidly which allows farmers to obtain large amounts for the use of fertilization. (Orwa et al., 2009).

ORIGIN OF PLANT

This plant was originally domesticated in Mexico and spread to other parts of Central and South America and North into the United States. It was brought over to parts of Africa and Asia as an ornamental plant and has become an invasive weeds that is widely spread. It is most commonly found in areas with an altitude between 550m and 1950m. It is commonly found scattered among rivers and roadsides. According to Orwa et al. (2009), this plant is also referred to as kembang bulan (Indonesian and Javanese), jalacate (Spanish) and buatongs (Thai) in Asia and Latin America.

  

Mimosa invisa (family Fabaceae) is a small, often scrambling and thorny neotropical shrub that has invaded many countries such as Australia (Anon et al., 2001; Grooves et al., 2003), America and Asia (Triet et al., 2001) and Asia (Maclean et al., 2003). This exotic plant has become a major weed of agricultural system in Nigeria. It has become a major weed of cropping systems including cassava, and it is still spreading

(Alabi et al., 2001). It is also a major weed in pastures, roadsides, ditch banks and waste lands in the Southern part of the country (Alabi et al., 2001).       

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF Mimosa invisa

Mimosa. invisa is a scrambling, strongly branched shrub growing 1-2m tall, woody at the base with age, with stems stretching to about 6m long, forming low, tangled masses or climbing on other vegetation with the aid of its spiny stems. The green or purplish tinged stems are 4 or 5 angled in cross-section and covered with abundant sharp, recurved, yellowish spines, 3-6 mm long, on the angles and fine, white hairs. According to Henty and Pritchard (1975) the stems do not root above the base, but according to Kostermans et al. (1987) they do. The root system has a robust and branching taproot extending to 1-2 m in depth and often woody at the crown. There are characteristic rhizobial nodules on the root hairs. The scattered bright-green leaves are finely bipinnate and 10-20 cm long. The leaves consist of 4-9 pairs of pinnae, 3-6 cm long, each with 12-30 pairs of opposite, sessile, lanceolate, acute leaflets, 6-12 mm long and 1.5 mm wide. The leaflet pairs fold together when touched and at nightfall, but they are considered as only moderate sensitive. The rachis is thickened at the base with slender, tapering stipules and finely hairy with a few prickles along the back.

            The flowers are pinkish-violet in color and in globose heads about 12mm in diameter, singly, in pairs or threes on individual stalks originating in the axils of young leaves. The penduncles are 6-10 mm long and hairy. The corolla is 2mm long, regular, 4-lobed and green at the tips, with 8 pinkish-violet exserted stamens. The flat, softy spiny, linear, 3-6 seeded pods are 10-35 mm long, 6-10 mm wide, occur in clusters in the leaf axils and break into 1-seeded joints which fall away from unbroken sutures. The seeds are yellow-brown, glossy, flattened, ovate and 2-3.5 mm long. There is a horseshoe-shaped ring on each face. The plant reproduces only by seed.

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

Kingdom Plantae

Phylum Spermatophyta

Subphylum Angiosperm

Class Dicotyledonae

Order Fabales

Family Fabaceae

Subfamily Mimosoideae

Genus Mimosa 

Species invisa

DISTRIBUTION OF Mimosa invisa

Mimosa. invisa is native to the noetropics, including much of South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean (Wilson and Garcia,1992). However, it is unclear whether it is native to North America and parts of the Caribbean (Barneby et al., 1991). It has now become widespread throughout the wet tropics and subtropics, and is usually a very invasive species wherever introduced.

HABITAT

Mimosas invisa is a major weed in pastures, plantations and roadsides and can also be serious in crops. It grows best here fertility, soil and air humidity and light are all high and dies away in prolonged dry seasons (Swarbrick et al., 1989). In its native range, the shrub is often found in disturbed shub-woodland, at the edge of gallery forest and open rocky places (Barneby et al., 1991). Mimosa invisa commonly grows in crops, plantation and pastures, as well as on disturbed moist wastelands and along roadsides, drains and watercourses in tropical and subtropical regions (Wilson and Garcia, 1992). It does not invade closed forests (Muniappan and Viraktamath, 1993).

   The conventional methods of weed control in Nigeria is chemical method. This has been found to have negative side effects on both crop growth and the environment. Hence, efforts are geared towards more sustainable and more environmental friendly means of controlling weeds, and thus, biological control offers the most promising solution.

          Palm oil mill effluent is the voluminous liquid waste that comes from the sterilization and clarification process in milling oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, family Aracaceae). The raw effluent contains 90-95% water and includes residual oil, soil particles and suspended solids. Palm oil effluent is a highly polluting material (Lebas et al., 2015) due to its high biological oxygen demand (BOD), low pH and colloidal nature (Heuze and Tran, 2015). Communities located near oil mills may also suffer from odor emissions caused by poorly managed effluent treatment systems (Lebas et al., 2015). Palm oil mill effluent contains cellulosic materials, fats, oil and grease and mainly generated from the oil extractions, washing and cleaning processes.

Cassava (Manihot esculentus) is a crop that produces starchy tuberous roots with more than 200 calories per day of food value (FAO, 2004). The cassava tuber consists of peel and flesh with significant hydrocyanic acid which is hazardous to mankind. In using cassava as human food, the peel is invariably removed and only the flesh is utilized (Olorunfemi et al., 2008). About 75% of cassava tubers harvested in Africa is processed through fermentation process which necessitate the release of large volumes of highly poisonous and polluted waste water into the environment (Weshy, 1991). Cassava processing effluent is often times considered as a significant contributor to environmental pollution and nuisance (FAO, 2004). 

1.2 Justification of the Study

A cursory look at cassava and palm oil processing depot reveals that effluents generated during their processing may have toxic effect on the weed flora. Vegetation hardly grows in such site/depot. The effect of these effluents on arable crops and plantation are well documented.

According to Olorunfemi et al. (2008), cassava mill effluent was found to inhibit seed germination, the growth as well as chlorophyll content of maize and sorghum crops. Studies have revealed that cassava effluent can be used as pre and post emergent herbicides (at seedling stage) for controlling Chromoleana odorata infestation (Ogundola and Liasu, 2006).

However, the disposal of this effluent from cassava mill and palm oil mill is a source of concern to environmentalists/ecologists. The indiscriminate release of these effluents into the environment brings about environmental pollution due to unbearable odors that it generates and this act also put risk on the surroundings soil by destroying the soil properties due to their toxic component.  This study therefore becomes important in investigating the use of cassava mill and palm oil mill effluents as potential herbicides for controlling exotic invasive weeds, Tithonia diversifolia and Mimosa invisa which are problems of agriculture particularly in Southern Nigeria.

1.3 Research Objective 

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of cassava and palm oil mill effluents on soil physic-chemical properties and their effectiveness in controlling Tithonia diversifolia and Mimosa invisa, which are exotic invasive weeds in Nigeria.

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