ANALYSIS OF SELECTED NATURALLY OCCURRING ORGANIC FERTILIZERS BY INSTRUMENTAL NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS USING THE NIGERIAN RESEARCH RECTOR-1(NIRR-1): THE QUEST FOR SAFER SOURCE OF PLANT NUTRIENTS
Abstract
Elemental analysis of different naturally occurring organic fertilizers obtained from different farms in Samaru, Zaria was made by use of INAA using the Nigerian Research Rector -1 The results show that the samples contain Al 6,644.33mg/kg, Ti 1,275mg/kg, Cr 6.7mg/kg, Br 8.67 mg/kg, Co 22.13mg/kg, Cs20.22 mg/kg, Sb 0.09 mg/kg, As 0.49 mg/kg. These fertilizers show appreciable concentrations of elements that are beneficial to plant growth. Therefore, they are suitable source of plant nutrition because of the beneficial elements found in them. They however, contain, heavy metals, the results were validated with data obtained from the simultaneous analysis of Coal fly ash, which is an internationally certified reference material.