Assessment of Yield of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) and Soil CO2 Emissions as Influenced by Compost Doses and Irrigation Regimes

Abstract— Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important vegetables cultivated in Togo. Water stress constitutes one of limiting factors of production in dry season. Compost use improves soil properties and crop production but may lead to soil CO2 emission into atmosphere. This study assessed the influence of compost doses and irrigation regimes on tomato yield and soil CO2 emission. Trial agronomics were conducted in dry season in year 2018 and 2019 in a randomized complete block design with three repetitions. Treatments included control plots, compost plots and chemical fertilizer plots. Water was supplied according to three irrigation regimes of 1, 2 and 4 days interval. Tomato fruits were harvested when color was yellowish red. Soil CO2 emission measurement was conducted in four months (120 days) during field experiment from January to April in 2019. Soil samples were collected from plots and incubated in laboratory. Soil CO2 emission was measured every day during 28 day’s incubation using 0.1 N HCl after precipitating the carbonate with a BaCl2 solution by alkali back-titrating. The results shown that highest tomato yield and highest soil CO2 emission were recorded on plots treated with compost and submitted to two days interval irrigation while the lowest values of these parameters were obtained from control plots and treated plots submitted to daily and four days interval irrigation.This was noted that CO2 emission from soil samples collected in third and fourth months of field experiment were more than those of first and second months