UTILIZATION OF ORGANIC FERTILIZER ON GROWTH AND PRODUCTION OF Brachiaria humidicola cv. Tully AND Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott IN COCONUTS BASED FARMING SYSTEM

Selvie D. Anis, David A. Kaligis, Malcky M. Telleng, Charles L. Kaunang, Marie Najoan

Abstract
   Indonesia is one of the among five country with big human population in the world, still import red meat to meet demand of this meat in country, since the price of this commodity is higher than those import. This expensive product due to the fattening cattle in country use concentrate as animal feed rather than forages as practice in other country such as Australia. The problem is supply of forages is insufficient due to limitation of space for forage production. On the other hand there is some under utilize space in coconut plantation since Indonesia is the largest production of coconuts in the world. Furthermore some tropical grasses have been selected as species tolerance growth under shade environment in coconuts plantation. Integrating systems always facing with competition of water and nutrient. Therefore external input of nutrient in form of fertilizer is important to avoid the negative effects of deficiency of nutrient especially to coconut as main crops. Utilization of an-organic fertilizer is more simple but costly and has some negative environmental impact. Chicken manure is available abundantly and some time promotes soil and water contamination. The aim of this research was to study the effects of organic fertilizer utilization on growth and production of two common tropical grasses of Brachiaria humidicola cv. Tully and Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott to be highly and moderately shade tolerant species grown underneath mature coconuts. Both species has good performance in term of dry matter yield and quality, persistent during dry seasons and palatable for ruminant. Chicken manure was fermented with effective micro-organism (EM4) during 7 days until the beginning temperature at 50°C down to around 20°C called "bokashi". The experiment was conducted at coconut research centre area (BALITKA) Manado at the end of rainy season, since February 2017 until August 2017. The plant material used in this study was tillers of both species. They were taken from field laboratory of Forages science department, Faculty of Animal Science, University of Sam Ratulangi Manado. Tiller was put in individual poly bags (1 plant/poly bag) which were filled with 2 kg growing media. The plants were nursed for 3 months in growing media. After 3 months of the nursery period, this plant has been trimming to get homogeny re-growth, and then was transplanted to experimental plot in the field. The field where the experiment was done has approximately 70% of flat land and 30% surge. The soil has an average pH of 6 and its colour was dark brown clay. Precipitation peaks took place in January, with high rainfall intensity. This caused high relative humidity (80%). Air temperature ranged from 25°C to 37°C. These climate conditions were suitable for the growth and production of both experimental plants. The elephant grass plant space was 100 x 100 cm apart and B. humidicola space was 50 x 50 cm apart. Bokashi has applied at the same time of plot preparation plowing and harrowing since this type of fertilizer needs enough time of dilution before planting. This experiment using completely randomized factorial design with 2 factors. The first factor was two species of grasses being evaluated were Brachiaria humidicola cv. Tully and Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott. The second factor was three different levels of bokashi (B) where: B0 = five ton of bokashi application, B1 = application of 10 ton per ha, B2 = application of 20 ton per ha. Each treatment was allocated randomly at experimental plots in the field. The variables include fresh weight yield (ton/ha), dry weight yield (ton/ha), crude protein yield (ton/ha), crude fiber yield (ton/ha), and ash yield (ton/ha). Dry matter yield of each plot was calculated through the value of green forage production and dry-weight percentage. Combining the dry matter yield with crude protein, crude fiber, and ash content data allowed us to calculate the mean crude protein, crude fiber, and ash yield. Carrying capacity was determined by the information obtained from the forage harvested; it was collected from productivity estimation of each plot and converted to one ha. Available forage was calculated based on 70% of the total used as factor. It is assumed that animal consumes 6.29 kg DM of forage/day/head (Indonesian condition). The plot size was 10 x 10 m. The total number of plot was 30 consisting of both grasses x 3 level of bokashi x 5 replications. Data were then statistically analyzed by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) by means of MINITAB (Version 16). Honestly Significance Difference (HSD) was applied to determine the difference among treatments. Differences were considered at P<0.05. Harvesting biomass of B. humidicola cv. Tully and P. purpureum cv. Mott was done simultaneously when the ages of plants has arrived 35 days after replanting time in the field. P. purpureum cv. Mott was defoliated at first node from the soil surface (approximately 10 cm above ground). B. humidicola was defoliated at 10 cm level above ground. To get sample of B. humidicola has been used square 1 x 1 meter. This square was placed in the middle to avoid the border effects, two times in each plot. Sample of P. purpureum has take five plants in two places in each plot so there were 10 plants as sample in each plot. Samples were dried at 60°C for about 48 h to determine the dry weight. The samples were analyzed for dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber and ash according to the standard procedure of Association of Official Analytical Chemists. The result of this research show that dry matter yield of both species of grasses received 20 ton ha-1 of organic fertilizer bokashi was 41% significant higher than other treatment. In term of crude protein yield it was 77% significant higher compared to other treatment. The effect of that treatment on NDF yield was 58% significant higher. Furthermore carrying capacity of both species of grasses received organic fertilizer bokashi at 20 ton ha-1 was significant higher at 40% than those at 5 ton ha^-1. It could be concluded that both species response positively utilization of organic fertilizer bokashi chicken manure. Utilization of organic fertilizer in form of bokashi could provide forages to support ruminant production integrated with coconuts plantation. By that way could be enhance economic value of this integrated systems.

Key words: organic, fertilizer, B. humidicola, P. Purpureum, coconuts