Consumer awareness of the environmental damage and health issues associated with conventional farming is driving the global shift towards organic farming. This resulted in high demand for organically produced food; however, there’s still limited evidence supporting its superior yield and quality. This study compared the yield and quality of growing the potato cultivar Palace under an organic nutrition regime with Guanoboost™ and a conventional regime with NPK fertilizers. Field experiments were conducted in six different farms, which acted as replicates, each farm planted 80 tubers, 40 treated with Guanoboost™ and 40 with NPK fertilizer, and minimal tillage was implemented. The overall results showed that potato plants cultivated with Guanoboost™ application produced a yield that was 10.13% lower than that of NPK fertilizer application. The Guanoboost™ treated plants from three replicates (Sakhikamva, UFH and Six trees) positively responded to the treatment with mean values of tubers per plant presented (8.4; 3.4; 3) respectively. The tuber weight per plant (UFH) was more than two-fold higher (Guanoboost™ 0.22 kg; NPK 0.08 kg). Additionally, on the quantification of colorimetric values both treatments had significant difference. Guanoboost™ (UFH) skin measurement presented yellow (37.389), whilst the flesh (Sakhikamva) was yellow (37.201). NPK (UFH) presented (38.332; 38.698) in skin and flesh, respectively. Guanoboost™ significantly improved sensory evaluation and yield particularly in terms of colour, gloss and general acceptability of yellow skinned potatoes. Furthermore, the tuber number and weight per plant performed well, confirming that Guanoboost could be an ideal amendment for sustainable agriculture.

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Paradigm Shift in Farming Practices in the Eastern Cape: Positive Yield and Quality Performance of Potatoes Under Organic Production with Guanoboost™

  • Awabo Manyaku,
  • Hildegard Witbooi

摘要

Consumer awareness of the environmental damage and health issues associated with conventional farming is driving the global shift towards organic farming. This resulted in high demand for organically produced food; however, there’s still limited evidence supporting its superior yield and quality. This study compared the yield and quality of growing the potato cultivar Palace under an organic nutrition regime with Guanoboost™ and a conventional regime with NPK fertilizers. Field experiments were conducted in six different farms, which acted as replicates, each farm planted 80 tubers, 40 treated with Guanoboost™ and 40 with NPK fertilizer, and minimal tillage was implemented. The overall results showed that potato plants cultivated with Guanoboost™ application produced a yield that was 10.13% lower than that of NPK fertilizer application. The Guanoboost™ treated plants from three replicates (Sakhikamva, UFH and Six trees) positively responded to the treatment with mean values of tubers per plant presented (8.4; 3.4; 3) respectively. The tuber weight per plant (UFH) was more than two-fold higher (Guanoboost™ 0.22 kg; NPK 0.08 kg). Additionally, on the quantification of colorimetric values both treatments had significant difference. Guanoboost™ (UFH) skin measurement presented yellow (37.389), whilst the flesh (Sakhikamva) was yellow (37.201). NPK (UFH) presented (38.332; 38.698) in skin and flesh, respectively. Guanoboost™ significantly improved sensory evaluation and yield particularly in terms of colour, gloss and general acceptability of yellow skinned potatoes. Furthermore, the tuber number and weight per plant performed well, confirming that Guanoboost could be an ideal amendment for sustainable agriculture.