Abstract
Cowpea is an important source of nutrition being popular in Nepal. In order to study its effect on nodulation, yield and yield attributes, a research was conducted in the sandy loam soil of the horticulture farm of Agriculture and Forestry University in 2018. The experiment was laid out in factorial 2×5 RCBD which consists of mulched and un-mulched condition as 1st factor and rhizobium inoculation (R) at 1gm/ 16.66 gm seed, phosphorus (P) at recommended dose of 120kg/ha, use of R plus P (RP), RP plus Molybdenum (RPMo) at 2 gm per kg seed and control with no such application as 2nd factor. So altogether there are ten treatments with three replications. Regarding 1st factor, mulched treatment was found significantly superior than un-mulched treatment in case of all yield attributes like canopy, stem diameter and plant height. Yield and no of nodules per plant was found 312.61 gm and 121.63 respectively in mulched treatment which was highly significant (P < 0.001) than un-mulched. In case of 2nd factor, plant height at 60 days after sowing was found significantly superior in all applications than control. Yield and no of nodules per plant was found 312.53gm (P < 0.01) and 129.33 (P < 0.05) respectively in RPMo treatment which was statistically significant and at par with P, RP and R treatment respectively and lowest in control. The rise in number of nodules due to the different treatment applications had the high positive correlation (P < 0.01) with yield and yield attributes. There was no any significant interaction between the two factors. Use of mulching and RPMo treatment was found to be the most suitable combination for cowpea in sandy loam soil.
Highlights
Legumes are the important food crops in relation to nutrition
The insignificant result on canopy length was found in between the second factor treatments but the highest canopy length was found in RP plus Molybdenum (RPMo) treatment (37.40, 61.68 and 71.54 cm) at 15, 30 and 60 days after sowing respectively as compared to other treatment
In case of 1st factor, the findings revealed that there was significant increase in yield and yield attributes of cowpea due to mulching
Summary
Legumes are the important food crops in relation to nutrition. Grain legumes occupy 10.22% of the cultivated area which is equal to 0.316 million ha with 0.27 mt production and productivity of 0.85 t/ha [1]. Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp] is an important legume vegetable crop of Nepal. It is warm season crop grown in many parts of the country with humid as well as sub tropical climate. It has numerous uses like vegetable, pulse, green manuring and fodder crop [4]
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