Abstract
Arid lands characterized by harsh environments viz. high temperature, limited water, salinity and all adverse conditions for plant production. The excessive use of chemical fertilizers aggravated the problem. The study was conducted in an arid saline soil near City of Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia. The objective of this research was to look into composted manure as organic fertilizers as well as soil amendment and nutrients supplier in such stressed environment. The treatments consisted of farmyard manure and chicken manures applied separately and in combination with each other, in addition to NPK and a control for comparison purposes. Test crop was Clitoria ternate (leguminous forage). Treatments consisted of a composted chicken and cow manures applied separately and in combination plus NPK fertilizer and a control laid in a randomized complete block design. Composted organic fertilizers (poultry and cow manures) are more effective in increasing nodulation, productivity and improving forage quality of C. ternate L. than inorganic fertilizer (NPK) under adverse conditions of salinity in arid lands. Poultry manure increased forage fresh and dry productivity over the control by 145 and 137%, respectively and the differences were significant (p ≤ 0.05). Composted organic fertilizers increased nodulation, yield and quality of C. ternate Compared to inorganic (NPK) fertilizers in an arid saline environment.