Submitted by:

ANGELO V. BALAGTAS

BSA-2A CROPSCIENCE

Submitted to:

MR. PEDRO P. RAMOS

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 INTRODUCTION

Peanut (Arachishypogaea L.) or groundnut is an annual herbaceous plant of the

Fabaceae or Legume family. It is known by many other local names such as earthnuts,
ground nuts, goober peas, monkey nuts, pygmy nuts,pig nuts (Eng.) Batungchina (Sul.),
and Mani (Span., Tag.) and Hua sheng (Chin.). Despite its name and appearance, the
peanut is not a nut, but rather a legume. The peanut plant has procumbent (trailing) stems
and grows to around 0.5 m (20 in) tall or long. The leaves are alternate and compound,
with 4 ovate to oblong leaflets, up to 6 cm long (2.25 in). The tubular, 5- parted flowers
are yellow and self-fertile. After pollination, the flower stalks elongate, growing to 6 cm
long, and push the developing pods into the ground, so that the fruit must be dug up from
the soil to be harvested. The fruit is an indehiscent legume (a pod that does not have
sutures or split open freely), typically containing 1 to 3 soft seeds (sometimes as many as
6), each covered with a reddish brown, papery membrane. The seeds contain up to 50%
oil. Peanut originated and was domesticated in South and Central America 3,500 years
ago, and is now grown in tropical and warm-temperate regions worldwide for its seeds
and their oil. It grows 30 to 50 centimeters tall. The leaves are opposite, pinnate with four
leaflets,each measuring 1 to 7 centimeters long and 1 to 3 centimeters across. Its flower is
a typical pea-flower in shape, 2 to 4 centimeters in diameter, and with yellow with
reddish veining. Hypogaea means "under the earth"- after pollination the flower stalk
elongates causing it to bend until the ovary touches the ground. Stalk growth continues
and pushes the ovary underground where the mature fruit develops into a pod. Pods are
about 3 to 7 centimeters long containing 1 to 4 seeds.
Globally, peanut is the 13th most important food crop with 50% of it is used as
raw material for the manufacture of peanut oil, 37% for confectionery, and 12% for seed
purposes. The vegetative part of peanut is excellent hay for feeding livestock because it is
rich in protein and has better palatability and digestibility than other fodders. China leads
in the production of peanuts, having a share of about 41.5% of overall world production,
followed by India (18.2%) and the United States of America (6.8%). In Europe, the
leading producer is Greece, at roughly 2000 tons per year.
In the Philippines, peanut is considered one of the major field legumes grown
bylocal farmers. However, its production has been low and erratic with national average
yield ranging only from 800 to1,000 kilograms per hectare. On the other hand, peanut
production remains profitable when proper cultural management and efficient scheme are
employed. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reported that a total of 26,107.99
hectares was planted to peanut in 2012 with annual production reaching 29,133.91 metric
tons valued at Php994.26 million. Among the top producing peanut provinces are
Cagayan, Isabela, Pangasinan, La Union, Quirino, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Aurora,
Albay, and Iloilo. Cagayan Valley produces almost half of the county’s total peanut.
Peanuts are rich in nutrients, providing over 30 essential nutrients and phytonutrients.
Peanuts are a good source of niacin, folate, fiber, vitamin E, magnesium and phosphorus.
They also are naturally free of trans-fats and sodium, and contain about 25% protein (a
higher proportion than in any true nut).

Peanuts have many uses. They can be eaten raw, used in recipes, made into solvents and
oils, medicines, textile materials, and peanut butter, as well as many other uses. Popular

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confections made from peanuts include salted peanuts, peanut butter (sandwiches, peanut
candy bars, peanut butter cookies, and cups), peanut brittle, and shelled nuts
(plain/roasted). Salted peanuts are usually roasted in oil and packed in retail-size plastic
bags or hermetically sealed cans. Dry roasted salted peanuts are also marketed in
significant quantities. Peanuts are often a major ingredient in mixed nuts because of their
relative cost compared to Brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, and so on. Although peanut
butter has been a tradition on camping trips and the like because of its high protein
content and because it resists spoiling for long periods of time, the primary use of peanut
butter is in the home. Large quantities are also used in the commercial manufacture of
sandwiches, candy, and bakery products. Boiled peanuts are a preparation of raw,
unshelled green peanuts boiled in brine and often eaten as a snack. More recently, fried
peanut recipes have emerged – allowing both shell and nut to be eaten. Peanuts are also
used in a wide variety of other areas, such as cosmetics, nitroglycerin, plastics, dyes and
paints.
Soil Type Peanuts prefer a well-drained soil with a sandy or sandy-clay subsoil.
The nut-forming pegs penetrate sandy soils easily, but have trouble with clay soils. At
harvesttime, sandy soils won't cling to the nuts, nor will pods be lost because of heavy
soil. However, you can grow peanuts in any type of soil if you carefully prepare the
seedbed to the point that it's loose and friable.
Growth and NPK uptake of peanut of cultivar Shulamit (Arachis hypgaea L.)
grown in a sandy soil (Xeropsamment - Torripsamment) was investigated under
favorable semi-arid conditions conducive to high yields. The rate of dry matter
production was slow until flowering at 44 days after planting when only 6% of the total
dry matter had been produced. From flowering until 111 days, 58% of the total dry matter
was produced with an average rate of 97 kg DM ha-' day' . There- after, from 112 days
until 128 days, at the pod ripening stage, the rate was 233 kp DM ha-' day . Total dry
matter production was 11,200 kg ha-, of which 54% was in the leaves and stems and 46%
in the pods. The pod dry matter yield was 5200 kg ha'. The total uptake of N and P
followed generally that of dry matter production, whereas highest K uptake occurred at
128 days and then decreased by 26% at harvest time. The total up- take of N, P, and K
was 300, 27 and 244 kg ha-', respectively. At 128 days the N, P, and K in the pods was
63, 71, and 16% of the total uptake of N, P, and K, respectively.
Nutrient uptake The dried shoot and pod samples were ground, and small portions
of the samples were then taken randomly to determine mineral nutrient content by
appropriate methods for each nutrient element: Kjeldahl digestion method using flow
injection analysis for N determination and wet oxidation method using spectrophotometer
and flame photometer for P and K determination, respectively (Kaewpradit et al., 2009).
The atomic absorption spectrometry method using a spectrophotometer was used to
determine Ca and Mg content (Broekaert, 2002). Total nutrient content for each element
(g plant–1) was calculated individually by multiplying dry weight and nutrient
concentration.
Nitrogen is one of the three most important nutrients in plant growth, and it's vital
that your soil contains enough to support your plants' needs. You can improve the
nitrogen content by growing legumes because of the unique ability of the symbiotic
bacteria living in the nodules of legume roots to draw elemental nitrogen from soil air
and "fix" it into a usable form.

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 Bats are Mammalia in the species Chiroptera that have mostly nocturnal activity
(Vandžurova et al, 2012). There are two main types: megabats (Megachiroptera) and
microbats (Microchiroptera) (Suwannarong and Schuler, 2016). Megabats are found in
the subtropics and tropics of Asia and Africa feeding on fruit, leaves, and water.
Microbats feed on insects as their primary food and they are geographically more
widespread than the megabats (Suwannarong and Schuler, 2016), therefore, their guano
were used as fertilizer (Kamins et al, 2015). Guano is the excrement produced by cave-
dwelling bats (FAO, 2011) and can be used as an organic fertilizer. Guano deposit is
important to agricultural enterprise as a source of phosphorus, either as guano or rock
phosphate (high percentage of phosphorus rock result from leaching guano deposits)
(Richards et al, 2014). Composition of guano may vary depending on the diet of bats
(Vandžurova et al, 2012). Natural bat guano development process Bat guano deposits
located in coastal and caves. Plants are eaten by insects, which are then eaten by bats.
After the digestion has taken place, the bats excrete droppings onto the cave floor which
are consumed by guano beetles and decomposing microbes. This process helps to
eliminate most viruses that might have passed from a bat to its fecal (Buliga, 2010). Bat
guano is a very rich fertilizer, due to its high content of carbon and the three vital primary
macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N-P-K) as well as important
secondary minerals such as calcium and magnesium that help control soil pH (Buliga,
2010; Shetty et al, 2013). Bat guano is superior to bird guano in higher nitrogen and
potassium, moreover, live micro bacterial flora is another essential content in bat guano
for plants which helps absorb the nutrients in bat guano and helps in resistance to plant
diseases and fungi, so it is widely used in agriculture for fertilization of plants. (Buliga,
2010; Shetty et al, 2013).

Objectives of the Study

Our main objective was to determine the potential use of bat guano applications

on peanut growth, yield and fruit quality grown in soils.