Combined Effect of Animal Manures and Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) on Growth, Physiology, Root Nodulation and Yield of Chickpea

Saud Alamri,Munazza Rafique,Muhammad Shaharyar Khan,Adnan Mustafa,Muhammad Asaad Bashir,Muhammad Farhan Qadir,Jiri Holatko,Muhammad Naveed,Martin Brtnicky,Manzer H Siddiqui

doi:10.3390/agronomy12030674

Abstract

The key plant nutrients determine the crop’s nutritional status and vigor, while their deficiency impairs the plant growth resulting in absolute failure of crop productivity. Phosphorus is the second major essential nutrient for the growth and establishment of crops. Drastic variations in climatic conditions across the world and low soil fertility, especially phosphorous (P) fixation in alkaline calcareous soils of arid climate have become serious issues threatening the productivity of crops. In this regard, the application of different organic fertilizers in combination with the lower dose of chemical fertilizers has been proved as an effective strategy to improve plant growth and yield. Thus, a pot experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the combined effects of animal manures (normal and processed) along with the recommended and half of the chemical fertilizer di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) on the growth, physiology, nodulation, and yield of chickpea. Results show that the animal manure (normal and processed) with half or recommended dose of DAP significantly improved the growth, yield, and physiological attributes of the chickpea. However, the combined application of normal animal manure with half DAP showed the highest results among all other treatments. It increased the contents of leghaemoglobin, P, K, primary branches, pods, and seed weight up to 113.7%, 97.8%, 80.6%, 78.5%, 119%, and 145% over control, respectively. This treatment also increased protein contents, nodule count, and nodule weight up to 78.38%, 147%, and 93.59% than the control, respectively. Maximum chlorophyll b contents (0.78 μg/mL) were obtained with the application of a recommended dose of DAP alone. These indigenous manure applications provide a novel value addition that is critical to boosting crop yield and agricultural sustainability.

Highlights

With the advent of the 21st century, agricultural production is more efficient than ever before, due to the intensive farming systems, but at the expense of environmental deterioration
The results indicate that a combination of normal animal manure (NM) and half di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) increased the shoot and root length up to 48.2% and 81.69%, while the combination of NM with recommended DAP 37.70% and 74.35 and processed manure (PM) with half DAP 27.32% and 61.53%
DAP showed the statistically significant results and this treatment increased the number of primary branches 78.5%, the number of pods 119%, and 100 seed weight to 145% mark up, while through the sole application of the recommended DAP improved primary branches

Summary

Introduction

With the advent of the 21st century, agricultural production is more efficient than ever before, due to the intensive farming systems, but at the expense of environmental deterioration. In this agricultural farming system, the immense use of fertilizer and pesticides, retard the agroecosystem health and ability to supply goods and services. Low soil quality, and fertility are some of the major causes of a decline in the overall productivity of the crops [4]. Apart from being a component of the diet, legumes are important in improving the nutritional status of the soils [5–8], reporting that legumes acquire more phosphorus as compared to non-leguminous crops as nodules are the main sink for phosphorus. Understanding P utilization in legumes under the intensive farming system is pivotal for developing more phosphorus efficient and judicious farming system

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion