Increasing cherry tomato yield using fish effluent as irrigation water in Northeast Brazil

The rational use of water in arid and semi-arid zones is fundamental for resource sustainability. The integration of aquaculture with agriculture appears to be an excellent way of saving water, disposing aquaculture effluents and providing additional fertilizer to the agricultural crop. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of using fish effluent to irrigate cherry tomatoes cultured with different types of organic fertilizers. A field experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design in a 2 × 5 factorial scheme, with four replications. The treatments consisted of the combination of two irrigation water types (well water and fish effluent) with five fertilizers (cow manure, chicken manure, vermi-compost, commercial compost and a control without fertilization). Evaluations for tomato fruit number, productivity and mean fruit weight were performed. Statistical analyses were done in the following harvest periods: 0–25, 0–50, 0–75 and 0–100% of the harvest days. On the first three harvest periods analyzed, treatments irrigated with fish effluent had higher fruit number and productivity. This effect was more evident when the organic fertilizer used did not attend all plant needs. The higher productivity observed in effluent treatments was related to the increase in fruit number. The higher productivity in treatments with fish effluent has a special importance for small farmers, to whom fertilizers are often cost prohibitive or unavailable.