Many biological agents have the potential to function effectively as soil amendments by providing essential nutrient supplements to improve soil conditions for better productivity. In this study, the influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus clarum), eggshell and coconut coir (CC) on growth and yield-related characteristics of maize were investigated. The experiment was arranged in a complete randomized design with seven treatments and three replicates. Four maize varieties (TZm105, TZm115, TZm179 and TZm137) evaluated were obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan. Findings from the research indicate significant variability in the morphological responses of the maize plants. Variety TZm179 gave the best performance, while maize plants treated with AMF only had the highest performance for plant height (58.21cm), stem height (36.77cm), leaf length (61.73cm), leaf width (3.53cm) and number of leaves (7.45cm). Whereas AMF + CC produced a comparatively higher number of ears, ear quality and silk quality. However, eggshells exhibited the least performance and this may not be unconnected with the paucity of nutrients that are required by maize for growth in its mineral composition. Therefore, AMF and CC can be recommended as soil amendments in modern agriculture. The correlation and principal component analysis revealed close relationships between some of the growth and yield characteristics of maize studied. For this reason, there is a higher chance for selection based on any of these characters to favor other related characters.
Key words: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, agro-waste, bio-fertilizer, eggshell, coconut coir.
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