Water Hyacinth Management via Utilization as Composting Material in Ethiopia

Water hyacinth (WH) is one of the rapidly spreading aquatic weeds globally including Ethiopia, causing adverse effects on the water body ecosystems and human benefits. Although composting the weed is one of its management techniques, there is inadequate information on the level of its effectiveness in managing weed infestation and the nutrient content of its compost. The study was carried out to determine the feasibility of WH composting in managing its infestation while producing quality compost at Lake Koka of Central Rift Valley in 2019. Treatments of WH, WH + effective microorganism (EM), cow manure (CM), CM + EM, 75:25% WH + CM with EM, and 75:25% WH + CM were replicated three times and applied in a randomized complete block design. A total of 1500 m 2 of water bodies were cleaned from WH infestations by utilizing the weed plant as organic material to produce 1‐ton compost. The highest soil pH, total nitrogen, CEC, and available potassium of 8.52, 0.81%, 51.86 meq/100 g, and 2550 cmol kg −1 , respectively, were obtained from 75:25% WH + CM with EM compost. The highest total content of 749 mg kg −1 available phosphorus was recorded from 100% WH with EM compost. Therefore, future research should be directed toward the evaluation of compost prepared from 75:25% WH + CM with EM on the yield and yield components of major crops around Lake Koka.