Effects of ridging and mulching combined practices on proso millet growth and yield in semi-arid regions of China

Trenched beds covered with plastic mulch was used to capture and retain precipitation for dryland cantaloupe production. Two trenches were formed in the fall in raised beds. Plastic mulch was laid over the beds and slitted at ca. 1 meter intervals over the trenches. Soil was placed over the slits, conforming the plastic to the shape of the trenches and channeling precipitation into the beds. Cantaloupes were seeded in the spring and grown with no supplemental irrigation. Planting moisture was significantly greater under the capture system than in unmulched beds. Seedling emergence time was reduced from 18 to 6 days and vine growth in the first 6 weeks was almost doubled. Total and marketable yields were doubled and fruit size significantly increased when water was limiting. Elevated soil temperatures under the mulch enhanced plant growth and yield even when moisture was not limiting. Combining a moisture capture system with supplemental irrigation could allow commercial production of cucurbit crops under limited water conditions in semi-arid areas.

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Growing Characters of Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) in Response to Different Rainwater Harvesting Practices in Semi-arid Region of the Loess Plateau in China

Ukrainian Journal of Ecology ◽

10.15421/2020_11 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 66-75

Author(s):

Qu. Yang ◽

B. Feng

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Loess Plateau ◽

Crop Growth ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Arid Areas ◽

Plastic Film ◽

Proso Millet ◽

Growing Seasons ◽

Harvesting Systems ◽

Semi Arid

In semi-arid and arid areas, crop growth is mainly limited by low rainfall (mm). Using plastic film-mulched and special soil tillage can be employed to harvest limited rainfall for crop growth so as to assure food production. The objective of this work was to find out how to exploit limited rainfall (mm) to increase yield of proso millet. Effects of different rainfall harvesting systems based on plastic film-mulched in proso millet were managed in semi-arid regions of Loess Plateau in 2010-2012, and soil type that study involved was calciccambisols. The hypothesis was that proso millet could improve growth and yield of proso millet by using rainfall harvesting system. Experiment designed three rainfall harvesting systems based on plastic mulched and no mulching (NM) as a control. A flat plot with no mulching was a control (NM), the width of furrow was 60 cm with 60 cm wide ridge (P60), the width of furrow was 60 cm with 100 cm wide M-shaped ridge (M160), and the width of furrow was 40 cm with 40 cm wide W-shaped ridge (W80). Control plot and systems were laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. Only the ridge was mulched with white plastic film. The results showed as follows: rainfall harvesting systems based on plastic film-mulched could increase water content of topsoil by 19.6%-43%, move up in temperature of topsoil by 0.1oC-2.7oC, improve agronomic traits (P=0.05), and increase yield by 96.8%-115.3% (P=0.05) and WUE by 120.2%-179.3% (P=0.05) compared with those of NM, respectively; “W-shaped” system performed advantage enough among all rainfall harvesting systems, increased water content of topsoil and temperature of topsoil, and separately increased yield and WUE of proso millet by 115.3% and 179.3% compared with those of NM =0.05) in three growing seasons; average rate of yield increase of proso millet in all rainfall harvesting systems tended to be quadratic function correlated with the rainfall (mm) (R2=1); rainfall harvesting systems had better effect on improving plant heights at early growing stage of proso millet than those at later growing stage. The hypothesis was supported by these findings that suggested rainfall harvesting systems with plastic film-mulched could improve yield and water use efficiency of proso millet and have affection effectively at early growing stage of proso millet, increasing yield of rainfall harvesting system was limited by abundant rainfall (mm) and had to be suitable for 250 mm-300 mm rainfall of growing seasons for proso millet; “W-shaped” system performed well in semi-arid areas.

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Stimulation of Soybean (Glycine max) growth and yield using Bradyrhizobium inoculants in the semi-arid environment of Botswana

Legume Research - An International Journal ◽

10.18805/lr-624 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

M. Mosupiemang ◽

K. Bareeleng ◽

M.S. Chiduwa and O.O. Molosiwa

Keyword(s):

Arid Regions ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Dry Weight ◽

Arid Environment ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Arid Conditions ◽

Inoculant Strain ◽

Uninoculated Control ◽

Bradyrhizobium Spp ◽

Semi Arid

Background: Crop yields in the semi-arid regions are low due to climatic and soil related constraints.Soybean as one of the most important legume crops grown worldwide, has a role to contribute nitrogen to improve nutrient poor soils in Africa. A study was conducted to examine the effects of Bradyrhizobium spp inoculations on the growth and yield of soybean varieties in a glasshouse.Method: The study was arranged in a randomized complete block factorial design, with factor A being two soybean varieties (Bimha and Status) while factor B was inoculation using four Bradyrhizobium strains and the uninoculated control. Results: Bradyrhizobium inoculation significantly (P less than 0.001)affected days to 50% flowering, days to emergence, nodule number, root dry weight and grain yield and yield traits. Parameters that were affected by both inoculant strain and variety included days to 50% flowering, days to emergence, number of pods per plant, pod weight and number of seeds per pod. The interaction effect of variety and Bradyrhizobium inoculant strain was observed only on number of pods per plants. Our study shows that soybean grows well when inoculated with Bradyrhizobium inoculants, in semi-arid conditions of Botswana.

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Informative Established Sequence Traits in Tepary Bean (Phaseolus Acutifolius A. Gray) for Drought Stress

Journal of Agricultural Studies ◽

10.5296/jas.v4i1.8514 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 55

Author(s):

Satya S S Narina ◽

Brian E Scheffler ◽

Linda A Ballard ◽

Sheron E Simpson ◽

Ramesh Buyyarapu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Expressed Sequence Tags ◽

Messenger Rna ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Functional Genes ◽

Tepary Bean ◽

Phaseolus Acutifolius ◽

Expressed Sequence ◽

Semi Arid

Drought stress, a major abiotic stress adversely effects crop growth and yield. Tepary bean was identified as one of the drought adapted legumes for arid and semi-arid regions. Drought responsive functional genes in tepary bean were identified through current investigation. The complementary DNAs (cDNAs) prepared from leaf messenger RNA (mRNA) of three genotypes ( #10, #15 and #20) were sequenced using 454, and 54,165 Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) were generated and functionally annotated.

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Effect of Different Cladding Material and Mulching on the Growth and Yield of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) under Forced Ventilated Greenhouse System

International Journal of Environment and Climate Change ◽

10.9734/ijecc/2021/v11i330382 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 115-125

Author(s):

D. Mahender Reddy ◽

R. Lalitha ◽

S. Vallal Kannan ◽

A. Raviraj

Keyword(s):

Light Intensity ◽

Leaf Area ◽

Cucumis Sativus ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Fruit Weight ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Plastic Mulch ◽

Number Of Leaves ◽

Cladding Material ◽

Semi Arid

The experiment was conducted at Agricultural Engineering College & Research Institute, Kumulur, (TNAU), Tamil Nadu with the objectives to test the performance of different cladding (blue and white colour polyethylene) and plastic mulches (silver on black colour) on the growth and yield of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L., Fadia F1, hybrid) to find the suitable cultivation practices for obtaining higher yields in semi-arid regions. The observations of micro climatic parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, light intensity and soil temperature were recorded in each polyhouse and at control (open cultivation). The plant growth parameters like plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of branches, date of first flowering, number of fruits, individual fruit weight and leaf- area were recorded among all the treatments. Among the blue and white polyhouse conditions, favourable solar incidental radiation and light intensity was observed in the white polyhouse as compared to blue polyhouse. Among the plastic mulch and without mulch treatments, the plastic mulch showed negative results under polyhouse cultivation where as positive results on growth and yield parameters at open condition (control). Significant differences were found among the treatments combinations of white poly house condition without mulch treatment on higher fruit size, fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, number of leaves per plant, leaf area and higher yield might be due to higher photosynthetic active radiation than blue polyhouse. The microclimatic condition recorded in blue polyhouse found to be detrimental to the pathogens under certain wave lengths and resulted in lower incidences of pest and diseases but not supported for higher yield due to low light intensity compared to white polyhouse. White polythene film as cladding material for construction of poly house and without mulching is important to achieve higher growth and yield of Cucumber under semi-arid regions.

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The Effect of Iron, Zinc and Organic Fertilizer on Yield of Chickpea (Cicer artietinum L.) in Mediterranean Climate

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis ◽

10.11118/actaun201866010049 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 66 (1) ◽

pp. 49-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mohsen Janmohammadi ◽

Hedayat Abdoli ◽

Naser Sabaghnia ◽

Mohammad Esmailpour ◽

Ahmad Aghaei

Keyword(s):

Arid Regions ◽

Nutrient Management ◽

Agronomic Traits ◽

Organic Fertilizer ◽

Yield Component ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Semi Arid

Chickpea is one the most important legume crops in Mediterranean semi-arid regions and its sustainable production strongly depends on the nutrient management and water availability. Soils of these regions generally have high pH, and low organic matter, which reduce the availability of micronutrients and led to multi-micronutrient deficiencies. For estimating the effect of integrated application of different levels of organic fertilizer (zero, 20 t ha-1, 40 t ha-1) and micronutrient fertilizers (Zn, Fe) on agronomic traits and yield components of chickpea, an experiment was carried out at the highland semi-arid regions in Piranshahr district (36° 40ʹ N, 45° 08ʹ E; 1840 m). Assessment of phenological development revealed that plants grown under control condition (no-organic and micronutrients fertilizer) had a significantly slower development. Assessment of agronomic characteristics showed that application of micronutrients fertilizer substantially increased plant height, first pod height, canopy width, number of the seed, seed weight, economic and biological yield compared to control condition. By increasing the application rate of organic fertilizer its positive effects became more impressive on growth and yield component. The best growth performance was recorded by integrated application of 40 t ha-1 organic fertilizer and micronutrients fertilizers. However, there was no significant difference between fertilizer of Fe and Zn. Overall, the results indicated that the studied site is facing with micronutrient deficiencies and application organic fertilizer can noticeably improve the efficiency of micronutrients fertilizer. A quick and supplementary approach is therefore required for remedy of both Zn and Fe deficiencies in the short term. The finding showed that a substantial yield improvement is possible by integrated application of organic and micronutrient fertilizer.

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Influence of volunteer durum wheat ( Triticum durum ) cultivars and density on lentils ( Lens culinaris )

Acta Agronomica Hungarica ◽

10.1556/aagr.54.2006.1.10 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 54 (1) ◽

pp. 101-108 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

H. Z. Ghosheh ◽

M. K. El-Shatnawi ◽

M. K. El-Shatnawi

Keyword(s):

Durum Wheat ◽

Seed Yield ◽

Triticum Durum ◽

Lens Culinaris ◽

Arid Regions ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Wheat Cultivars ◽

Single Plant ◽

Dwarf Cultivar ◽

Semi Arid

Greenhouse experiments were conducted for two consecutive seasons to investigate the influence of volunteer durum wheat cultivars and density on lentil growth and yield. It is speculated that interference may be severe whenever wheat and lentils are rotated in semi-arid regions. Lentil:durum wheat ratios of 1:0, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 and 1:6 were evaluated utilizing two durum wheat cultivars, Hourani and ACSAD 65. The results indicated that wheat interference did not influence lentil growth for the first 80 days after crop emergence, but afterwards, the lentil height, straw and seed yield were affected by the presence of wheat. A 50% reduction in either lentil straw or seed yield was estimated from the interference of a single plant per pot. The semi-tall cultivar Hourani had more adverse effects on lentil growth and yield than the semi-dwarf cultivar ACSAD 65.

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