Abstract
The present work was conducted in the fields of Al-Sewarah and Kurkok stations which belong to the State Board of Agricultural Researches, Ministry of Agriculture, Iraq during the growing season of 2018. The goal of the study was to test the effects of the application of cyanobacteria (Anabaena circinalis and Nostoc commune) alone or in combination with reducing the dose of chemical fertilizers (CFs), which consisted of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea (46% nitrogen), on growth, yield and yield components of wheat cv. IPA99. Application of 50% and 100% of CFs without cyanobacteria as well as control (without cyanobacteria and CFs) were also included in this study for comparison.
 The results indicated that the use of wheat grains coated with compost amended with cyanobacteria, grains coated with compost, and foliar spray with cyanobacteria did not change yield, yield components and most of growth parameters tested in both stations. However, application of 50% CFs along with the treatments that included either the coating of grains with compost amended with cyanobacteria or the foliar spray with cyanobacteria extract resulted in grains yield, yield components, biological yield, harvest index, and test growth parameters similar to those achieved by the recommended dose of CFs. This study suggests that this approach can be applied to reduce the input of chemical fertilizers into the field and thereby reducing the cost and pollution of agroecosystem.
Highlights
Agricultural fertilizers are essential to enhance proper growth and yield of crops
The application of 50% chemical fertilizers (CFs) along with the treatments of grains coating with compost amended with cyanobacteria or foliar with cyanobacteria extract provided grains yield, biological yield and harvest index similar to those achieved by the recommended dose of CFs
Combined application of 50% CFs and grains coating with compost amended with cyanobacteria or cyanobacteria extract as a foliar have resulted in grains, biological yields, and harvest index values similar to those achieved by sole application of the recommended rate of CFs
Summary
Agricultural fertilizers are essential to enhance proper growth and yield of crops. Most of the agriculture sectors are heavily dependent on inorganic chemical fertilizers. Cyanobacteria as biofertilizers is significantly capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen [3], improving soil fertility and crop productivity, decreasing the pollution of the agricultural environment and enhancing the quality of the produced food [4]. The present study was conducted to isolate and purify the local isolates of cyanobacteria (Nostoc and Anabaena) determine the best approach to apply them to the wheat field, and comparing the outcomes of applying them alone or in combination with the reduced dose of chemical fertilizer. Our study results indicated that cyanobacteria isolates mixture (Nostoc and Anabaena) ( Figure- 1), cultured in the experiment bioreactors, produced higher fresh biomass at values of 13.2g /l to free sodium nitrate concentrations after 28 days of incubation. The compost can be considered as an inert source of fertilizer
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