Abstract
This study was conducted at Malaysia Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Seberang Perai, Penang (Malaysia), that aims to examine the impacts of the application of Azolla pinnata on the growth and performance of rice of the MR 297 variety. The experiment consisted of five treatments: PK + Azolla (T1); NP + Azolla (T2); NK + Azolla (T3); NPK-Control (T4), and Azolla only (T5). Each treatment had four replicates. The experimental design used was a complete randomized block design (RCBD), and all data collected were analyzed using one-way ANOVA with a statistically significant 0.05% test. For the average soil analysis between the beginning and end, all soil analyses showed decreased soil properties except total N and organic carbon. There is a significant effect on the tiller, panicles, yields, plant height, and SPAD value in crop growth performance. There was no significant effect observed on N and P among plant nutrients. In contrast, there was a significant treatment effect on K. This study concluded that the soil treated with NK + Azolla showed a comparable result with soil treated with inorganic fertilizer only for the total yield.
Highlights
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the conspicuous cereal crops in the world, belonging to the family of Poaceae (Gramineae)
These outcomes were in line with those reported by Khaliq, Iqbal and Basra (1999), Hussain et al (2001) and Soomro et al (2009), which showed that wheat sowing at a vast seeding rate produced greater plant height and the shortest plant was recorded for the lowest seeding rate
These results did not coincide with the findings of Mohammad and Maqsuda (2017) who reported that seed rate increase resulted into a slight rise in the height of the plants, this could be because of environmental conditions and the genetic make-up of the cultivar used in both the studies
Summary
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the conspicuous cereal crops in the world, belonging to the family of Poaceae (Gramineae). Wheat is a staple food stuff used to make flour for steamed breads, leavened, flat, cookies, biscuits, breakfast cereal, cake, pasta, fermented alcoholic beverages (beer), noodles, and bio-fuel (Ibukun and Moyin, 2018), used by 7.592 billion individuals residing in 43 countries of the world. It contributes 30 percent to whole grain demand of the world and stand at the top among the cereal crops. Various issues are involved in the low production of this crop, such as edaphic properties, climatic situations, lack of technological knowledge, shortage of water supply for irrigation, and improper usage of fertilizer doses (Ullah et al, 2018)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
