Compost Mixture: It's Effect on Growth and Yield of Lettuce

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Poverty has deprived people ofaccess to nutritious food. Such abhorrent conditions have led to stunting and malnutrition, which has crippled generations of Filipinos. If we are to combat malnutrition, we need to think in terms of ecosystems. We need to bring together efforts from government, from NGOs and multilateral agencies, and from individuals. The quest for strengthening the school health and nutrition programs for the achievement of the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals under DO No. 43 s. 2011 deemed the interest of the best practices. This is to sustain support for the school-based feeding program for there are even more children who have to shepherds into the schools but the government resources are simply not enough to provide them all which they are entitled to. This was undertaken to assess the effect on growth and yield of lettuce in terms of height and number of the leaf.Lettuce plants thrive in nutrient-rich soil. Once the seedlings emerge, a dose of fertilizer can be applied to maximize lettuce leaf production. Choose a well-balanced fertilizer with equal parts nitrogen, potassium and phosphate. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the productivity of lettuce with organic fertilizers and compare with mineral fertilizing.

METHODS

This is an experimental type of research, which aimed to determine the effectiveness of compost mixture on the growth and yield of lettuce. Lettuce growth characteristics were measured on a random sample of ten plants, taken from each experimental bed and the following data were recorded: plant height, leaf number per plant. Qualitative data was used based on the gathered report from the Gulayan sa Paaralan coordinator, School-Based Feeding Program coordinator, and health nutrition officer of the school. The frequency and ranking tool were used to assess the result.

RESULTS

It is noticeable that compost mixture implementation had a great effect in meeting the growth and yield of lettuce production. On the onset that it was not implemented, pupils, teachers, and parents found difficulty in attaining the volume of lettuce as per need to support the school-based feeding program. Geared with the best practices, compost mixture implementation is one of the potent strategies in organic vegetable gardening such as lettuce production.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrate the need of the school to continue seek opportunities on the health and nutrition aspects of the pupils towards establishing a vegetable garden in the school thru the best practices linked tothe partnership.Stakeholders must ensure the accuracy of the mixture to provide the mineral composition needed by the soil to increase its fertility and the use of 3Rs, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, be adopted in the formulation compost mixture.