Water hyacinth bio slurry: characterization and application for enhancing soil fertility and teff crop yield

Organic fertilizers play a crucial role in increasing the amount of soil nutrients and improving crop productivity. They enrich soil health by improving microbial activity and maximizing nutrient release. This study assessed the potential of water hyacinth bioslurry (WHB) as an organic soil enhancement for improving soil fertility and crop productivity. The bioslurry was produced through anaerobic digestion under mesophilic conditions and examined for pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), total sulphur (TS), and organic matter (OM) in order to identify the appropriate application rates for each treatment. The six treatments included were control (Teff plot without BS, MF, or mixed), bioslurry one (Teff plot 1000 kg/ha BS added), bioslurry two (Teff plot 2500 kg/ha BS added), bioslurry three (Teff plot 5000 kg/ha BS added), bioslurry four (Teff plot 10000 kg/ha BS added) and mixed fertilizer (Teff plot mineral fertilizer 100 kg MF added) application with different proportion, respectively. A Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was employed to evaluate the fertilizer potential of Water hyacinth bioslurry (WHB).The study findings show that the yield with medium application (2500 kg/ha BS) added organic fertilizer plots increased 66.6 %, 26.4%-45.33 %, 20.1% yield for Teff (Eragrostis tef) compared to control, high application of bioslurry (BS4) and mixed chemical fertilizer (MF).Compared with the control treatment plots, the organic fertilizer (BS2) treatment significantly increases Organic matter (OM) by 28.42% from the control treatment plots (p ≤ 0.05).The bioslurry's effectiveness as an organic fertilizer is confirmed by the combined XRD, FTIR, and SEM results, which show efficient biodegradation and mineral retention. The water hyacinth bislurry two (BS2) treatment (2,500 kg ha⁻¹) substantially enhanced the fresh biomass (1,240 ± 455.08 g), dry biomass (580 ± 129.95 g), and grain yield (101.67 ± 59.65 g) of teff (Eragrostis tef) at a 95% confidence level (p ≤ 0.05), These results show that water hyacinth bioslurry can serve as a sustainable organic fertilizer, increasing crop yield, improving soil fertility, and contributing in the reduction of an invasive aquatic species.