Evaluation of Growth, Yield and Proximate Composition of Food Industrial Wastewater-Irrigated Vegetables

Aims: To evaluate performance of growth, yield and proximate compositions of three vegetables namely; spinach (Spinacia oleracea), roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), and scent leaf (Ocimum gratissimum) irrigated with wastewater from some selected food processing industries in Makurdi and river water as control.

Place and Duration of Study: The Potted experimental study was carried out in a net house in December 2022 at a school farm space in Benue State University Makurdi, the capital of Benue State, Nigeria, between December 2022 and February 2023.

Methodology:Samples: We included four water sources for irrigation (Seraph Oil wastewater, MIVA rice wastewater, Chile fish farm wastewater and River Benue water as a control) Ten (10) vegetable samples (Spinach 3, roselle 3 and scent leaf 4). Viable seeds of the vegetables were sown in a randomized complete block design in triplicates. Assessment of growth and yield was done by measurement of plant height, stem size, leaf length, leaf width and number of leaves from 1 week after sowing of seeds to week six (6) of maturity. Proximate composition were determined for the parameters such as moisture content, crude protein, lipids, crude fibre, ash content, and carbohydrates were examined.

Results:The growth parameters and yield for all the investigated vegetables were in the order Chile farm wastewater (CFWW) > MIVA rice wastewater (MRWW) > River Benue Water (RBWcontrol) > Seraph Oil wastewater (SOWW).The vegetables grown with CFWW significantly had higher moisture content, protein and total fats than the vegetable irrigated with other samples. While those grown with RBW (control) had higher fiber, ash content and carbohydrate than the ones irrigated with other sources of wastewater.

Conclusion:The waters used for irrigating the vegetables had essential nutrients that favoured their growth and yields but subjective to proximate composition differently.