Abstract

A field study was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farms of the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria in 2007 and 2008 to evaluate the effect of palm oil mill effluent and NPK fertilizer on the performance of Amaranthus cruentus. The trial involved three levels of palm oil mill effluent (0. 5 and 10 t ha^-1) and three levels of NPK (0, 150 and 300 kg ha^-1) using a factorial arrangement fitted into randomized complete block design and replicated three times. Results revealed that the effluent and NPK fertilizer had positive effects on dry matter partitions, relative yield, relative agronomic effectiveness and chlorophyll content of A. cruentus. Integration of 5 t POME and 300 kg NPK ha^-1 had the optimum total dry matter (9.65 t ha^-1), relative yield (2.08), relative agronomic effectiveness (1.91) and total chlorophyll content (58.80 mg g^-1). 

Key words: Amaranthus cruentus, chlorophyll content, dry matter, relative agronomic, effectiveness.