Valorisation of Biowaste and Aquatic Invasive Plants Through Compost Production for Agricultural Use

Abstract This study evaluates the quality and performance of compost produced from household biowaste (CBIO), aquatic invasive plants (CAIP) and a mixture of the invasive plants and biowaste (CBAIP) in comparison with mineral fertilizer (NPK) application. The composts were produced using Aerobin 400 Composter with aquatic invasive plant collected from the Owabi dam and solid biowaste from households within the Owabi catchment in the Ashanti Region of Ghana as feedstock. A field experiment in a 35 m x 19 m plot of maize was conducted with 9 treatments of the different compost produced and mineral fertilizers in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 4 replications. The results show that the compost types produced have acceptable quality with regards to nutrients (NPK), organic matter (OM), organic carbon (OC), bulk density, porosity, and heavy metal contents (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, As, Ni) among other properties. Grain yields following treatment with CAIP (2.06 ± 0.692 tons/ha), CBAIP (2.15± 0.668 tons/ha) and CBIO (2.052 ± 0.915 tons/ha) were similar to grain yields from NPK application (2.55 ± 0.611 tons/ha) but significantly higher than the control (1.34 ± 0.500 tons/ha) at 5%. The results show that the different compost types produced have beneficial impacts on grain yields comparable to NPK application. It is, therefore, concluded that aquatic invasive plants and biowaste are suitable feedstock for the production of high-quality compost that significantly improves grain yields.