Abstract
In hot arid lands, soil salinity, irrigation with brackish waters and the massive use of mineral fertilizers are major constraints for the development of potato cropping. The current field experiment was conducted in the Sahara Desert of Algeria in order to highlight the effect of organic fertilization on the improvement of potato production and the increase of plant salt-stress tolerance. The variation of yield production parameters and nutritional status of plants were evaluated through a split-plot design including six increasing rates of poultry manure (PM) (0, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 mt/ha) tested in three experimental sites with increasing salinity levels: low saline soil (electrical conductivity ‘EC’ = 0.9 dS/m), saline soil (EC = 2.2 dS/m) and high saline soil (EC = 5.9 dS/m). The results revealed a significant and proportional increasing of all studied yield parameters (number, seize and yields of tubers) with the increase of PM rates compared to the control. The effect of the interaction (PM × salinity level) showed that the highest yield (44.55 mt/ha) was recorded in plots treated with 60 mt/ha of PM in high saline soils. The assessment of nutritional status at flowering stage of potato plants demonstrated that concentrations of K+ and N increased while Na+ concentrations decreased, in both leaves and roots, as PM rates increasing, principally beneath high salinity level. Our findings suggest the dose of 60 mt/ha of PM is an optimal amount producing the best tuber yields under saline conditions in arid soils.
Highlights
Salinity is a major environmental constraint facing modern agriculture
The highest values of all study yield parameters were recorded in high level of soil salinity (HSS) site with an average of 9.4 ± 1.5 tubers per plant, and average diameter of tuber of 6.1 ± 0.7 cm, with a mean tuber production per plant estimated to 1.0 ± 0.3 kg and a total tuber yield of 32.5 ± 8.8 mt/ha (Table 2)
Our results allow assuming that biofertilization using poultry manure (PM) efficiently overcomes the inhibitory effect of salinity and improves growth, yield and nutritional status of potato plants
Summary
Salinity is a major environmental constraint facing modern agriculture. Often associated with drought, it leads to a continuous reduction of yields and arable land surface, which threatens global food balance (Munns, 2002; Rafat and Rafiq, 2009). Mabrouka Oustani Laboratory of Saharan Bio-Resources: Preservation and Development, Faculty of Nature and Life Sciences and Sciences of Earth and Universe, University of Kasdi Merbah, 30000 Ouargla, Algeria. Climatic conditions of these regions are characterized by weak and erratic precipitation associated with important evaporation promoting the accumulation of salts in the soil. The excessive salt amounts adversely affect soil physical and chemical properties, as well as the microbiological processes (Lakhdar et al, 2008) The alteration of these properties represents an indirect stress for water and mineral plant nutrition (Levigneron et al, 1995)
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