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RESPONSE OF AMARATH TO AMENDED SOILS – HOPE FOR URBAN DWELLERS

ABSTRACT
A 3- month Screen House experiment was carried out in Benin City on the response of amaranthus spp to organically amended soils. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of three soils (top soil: zero dung, top soil: cattle dung and top soil: poultry dung in 1 : 1 ratio) on growth and yield of three amaranth varieties (white-seeded, red-seeded and black-seeded). Amended soil and amaranth variety were factorially combined into 9 treatments and replicated three times. The treatments were fitted into a completely Randomized Design (CRD). Among the varieties, the white-seeded produced the highest plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, fresh herbage weight, dry herbage weight and root dry weight. The amended soil on average produced larger leaf area, heavier fresh weight of leaves above the control treatment. Top soil:
poultry dung, in combination with white-seeded variety produced the largest leaf area. White-seeded amaranth furnished the highest crude protein concentration. Production of amaranth is increased when poor top soil is enriched with organic fertilizers.
Key Words: Amaranth, organic fertilizer, nutrient and urban agriculture.

INTRODUCTION
The grain amaranths (Amaranthus species) are native to the New World. Pre-Columbian civilizations grew thousands of hectares of this pseudo-cereal. Some indigenous populations used grain amaranth, along with maize and beans, as an integral part of their cropping schemes. The Aztecs relied on amaranth seeds as an important staple “grainˮ (National Academy of Sciences, 1984). Amaranthus cruentus (Linnaeus) is a popular leafy veg­etable cultivated in Nigeria and other West African coun­tries although it originated from South America (Saunder and Beciker, 1984). Edible species of the genus Amaranthus namely: A. cruentus, A. dubius. A caudatus and A.hypochondriacus are common in Nigeria. Amaranthus cruentus which is a Mexican and Guatemalan species is useful either as a grain or leaf vegetable (Makinde et al., 2010 ).
Amaranthus species is an important vegetable crop providing vitamins, minerals, sugar, water, protein and fiber in the human diet for healthy body growth and sustenance (Bailey, 1992). The nutrient value from 100 gm weight of amaranth leaves is ; water 85 ml, calorie 48, protein 5 g, fat 0.7 g, carbohydrate 5 g, fibre 1.5 g, calcium 250 mg, iron 4 mg, β-carotene equivalent 1800 mg, thiamine 0.1 mg, riboflavin 0.3 mg, niacin 1.5 mg and ascorbic acid 100 mg (Tindall, 1975). Martiorosyan and Miroshnichen (2007) reported that amaranth has been used effectively to treat patients with hypertension and Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD).

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