Soil Plant Interaction

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food crop for more than half of the world's population and influences the livelihoods and economics of several billion people. Asia's food security mostly depends on irrigated lowland rice cultivation practices, which produce three-quarters of all the harvested (Pimentel et al., 2004; Bouman et al., 2005). Lowland irrigated rice requires a lot of water for puddling, transplanting and irrigation. Further, significant water losses occur through seepage, percolation and evaporation. It is estimated that it consumes 3000 to 5000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of rice. In India, the annual per capita availability of water may be reduced to 1340 cubic meters in 2025 and 1140 cubic meters in 2030 (Suhag, 2016). India is already water water-stressed

A field experiment was carried out at Solapur, Maharashtra during 2015-2017 on 4 and 5 year old plants of pomegranate having treatments composing of 4 organic mulches (i.e.No mulch, wheat straw, sugarcane baggas and safflower straw) and 5 different irrigation levels (i.e. 0.30 to 0.80 * ETr) through drip irrigation under split plot design. Amount of applied irrigation water for different treatments varied from 2597 to 9218 Liters per season per tree. The results indicated that organic mulches and irrigation level had significant effect on leaf area index, nos. of fruits, yield and water use efficiency. The highest water use efficiency was estimated with sugarcane baggas while the lowest WUE was estimated in no mulch.The mean maximum plant height, number of fruits, weight, growth, LAI,yield and WUE was evaluated at 0.50*ETr and 0.60*ETr irrigation level and sugarcane baggas mulch is the best for 4 and 5 old age pomegranate tree.

Water is the prime mover in agricultural development in rainfed agriculture. For better use of water in agriculture in water-limited environments, efforts are needed from different research disciplines; agronomists, plant breeders, plant physiologists, plant biotechnologists, water engineers and others, to develop new approaches in water use. Among different approaches water productivity or water use efficiency (WUE) is an efficient approach.Water use efficiency can be increased by two ways, either by increasing yield or by saving water. Water use efficiency is affected by a number of factors like climatic conditions, edaphic factors, nature of plant and agronomic practices. There are various techniques to increase water use efficiency in the rainfed ecosystem. Many options to improve water use efficiency are available and the target is to produce more biomass with minimum possible amount of water.

Vegetable production in India is to be increased to improve the nutritional status of the people. Production can be increased through the adoption of technologies like drip irrigation, fertigation and plastic mulching, which increases the water use efficiency and fertilizer use efficiency. It also reduces the labour needed and at the same time increase the yield. Tomato and brinjal are two major crops having significant scope for increasing the production by using these technologies. Nitrogen and potassium are important to the plants and at the same time these fertilizers are very costly. Application of these fertilizers through drip ensures proper utilization and results in better yield. Plastic mulching when used along with drip and fertigation, controls weeds and further increases the efficiency of the system.

Khan (Pakistan), during 2012. Two radish varieties i.e., exotic and local, were used. The treatments included sewage water and different concentrations of Pb @ 25, 100, 200 and 400 mg L-1. The results showed that the total biomass of both the radish varieties were nonsignificantly influenced by the applied Pb concentrations and sewage water, except for root diameter which were significantly greater in the local cultivar (3.261 cm).Pb treatments significantly reduced the growth and yield of both the cultivars. While the Pb uptake by the root and leaf of radish plants was increased by the increasing the applied Pb levels, with the highest value for root (19.008 mg kg-1) and leaf (16.134 mg kg-1) in the treatment receiving the highest applied Pb concentrations. The total biomass, fresh weight of root and root diameter was found significantly higher except for Pb @ 400 mg L-1 , in the plants receiving sewage water as compared to the control and different levels of Pb. The interaction amongst the varieties and treatments were found significantly different for various parameters. Thus, it can be concluded, that the use of sewage water and Pb contaminated wastewater results in higher metal concentration in the radish root and may lead to different types of health problems to consumers.

Water is the prime mover in agricultural development in rainfed agriculture. For better use of water in agriculture in water-limited environments, efforts are needed from different research disciplines; agronomists, plant breeders, plant physiologists, plant biotechnologists, water engineers and others, to develop new approaches in water use. Among different approaches water productivity or water use efficiency (WUE) is an efficient approach.Water use efficiency can be increased by two ways, either by increasing yield or by saving water. Water use efficiency is affected by a number of factors like climatic conditions, edaphic factors, nature of plant and agronomic practices. There are various techniques to increase water use efficiency in the rainfed ecosystem. Many options to improve water use efficiency are available and the target is to produce more biomass with minimum possible amount of water.

The experiment was conducted at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center, Tiyo District, which is located in Arsi Zone, Ethiopia during the dry season of 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 based on the objective to select most effective water saving techniques and improve water productivity of irrigated potato. Three types of furrow irrigation methods (alternate, fixed and conventional furrow), two mulch types (straw and plastic) and no mulch (as control) with three replications in split plot design was arranged. The over years analysis of variance revealed that, different types of irrigation and mulch types highly significantly (p<0.01) affected potato tuber yield and water productivity. Potato tuber and biological yield was highly significantly (p<0.01) influenced due to different mulch types used. In addition to this, the interaction effect of irrigation methods and mulch types had a significant (p<0.05) effect on tuber yield of potato. The maximum and minimum tuber yield...

Soil moisture conservation, proper irrigation scheduling and nutrient management are crucial for sustainable cucumber production. A field experiment was set up over two years (2018 and 2019) to investigate the effects of irrigation frequency, black polyethylene mulching, and nitrogen fertilization on cucumber yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) at Ikole-Ekiti, Nigeria. The experiment was a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a split-plot arrangement and the main plot as drip irrigation frequency: twice per week (I4), three times per week (I5), and four times per week (I6), while the sub-plots were nitrogen fertilization; (no fertilizer, N0 and 180 kg/ha urea, N180) and mulching (no mulch, NM and mulch, M). The highest yield (8.39 and 8.51 t/ha) with the best WUE was obtained from treatment I4MF (F, fertilization), while the lowest (5.81 and 5.79 t/ha) was obtained from I6MF for the respective years. The combination of...

Field experiments were conducted to study the influence of three irrigation methods corresponding to conventional (surface), drip and drip in combination with plastic mulch on cantaloupe (Cucumis melo) during 2004 and 2005. Three different irrigation methods i.e., conventional (CI), drip (DI) and drip in combination with plastic mulch (DI + PM) were applied to cantaloupe between emergence and harvest. Number of fruits per plant, fruit weight and fruit thickness (yield components) were measured and consequently crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE) were determined for all treatments. Data suggested that irrigation method significantly (P ≤ 0.01) affected the fruit weight and fruit thickness, but not the number of fruits per plant. The highest fruit weight and fruit thickness was obtained for the DI + PM treatment and lowest for the CI treatment. The results of the study also indicated that irrigation method significantly affects cantaloupe yield in the order of DI + PM > DI > CI owing to differences in fruit weight and fruit thickness in the same order. The crop yield was highest (27.07 t ha-1) for the DI + PM treatment. The yield from DI treatment was intermediate but lowest (22.47 t ha-1) from CI treatment. The highest WUE (0.91 t ha-1 cm-1) was obtained from DI + PM treatment and lowest (22.47 t ha-1 cm-1) from CI treatment. The DI + PM treatment was found to be more effective irrigation method in improving WUE and increasing cantaloupe yield.

Soil moisture conservation, proper irrigation scheduling and nutrient management are crucial for sustainable cucumber production. A field experiment was set up over two years (2018 and 2019) to investigate the effects of irrigation frequency, black polyethylene mulching, and nitrogen fertilization on cucumber yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and nutrient use efficiency (NUE) at Ikole-Ekiti, Nigeria. The experiment was a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a split-plot arrangement and the main plot as drip irrigation frequency: twice per week (I4), three times per week (I5), and four times per week (I6), while the sub-plots were nitrogen fertilization; (no fertilizer, N0 and 180 kg/ha urea, N180) and mulching (no mulch, NM and mulch, M). The highest yield (8.39 and 8.51 t/ha) with the best WUE was obtained from treatment I4MF (F, fertilization), while the lowest (5.81 and 5.79 t/ha) was obtained from I6MF for the respective years. The combination of...

A field experiment was carried out to assess the role of exogenously applied salicylic acid (SA) on radish (Raphanus staivus L.) plants grown in artificially cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soils. For this purpose, SA (300 mg L-1) was applied as foliar spray on control and Cd-stressed (0.5 mM and 1.0 mM CdCl 2) plants at vegetative stage and its influence on Cd toxicity at vegetative and mature stages was examined. A progressive increase in the uptake of Cd and its accumulation in radish plant parts was observed with increase of CdCl 2 concentration in the soil, which retarded root growth while stimulated the shoot growth. Reproductive stages like inflorescence raceme length, number of branches of inflorescence raceme and number of siliques per plant were enhanced due to presence of Cd in the soil. Foliar application of SA substantially retarded Cd uptake in radish plants thereby improved root vegetative characters resulting in amelioration of Cd-toxicity. Moreover, SA improved shoot characters, contributed to weight gain by mature siliques and positively influenced inflorescence and raceme characters.

Green revolution in India started during late 1960's increased national food production significantly (50 to 257 m t from 1950 to 2015) and enabled India to achieve self sufficiency. In this, the combined effect of water (irrigation) and nutrients (chemical fertilizers) to enhance the yield of improved genotypes was enormous. In coming decades too, water and nutrients continue to be very critical inputs to increase the food production further, but are becoming physically scarce and /or economically expensive due to growing multiple demands for water on one hand, and fast exhausting fossil fuels and the cost on other hand. Since nutrients and water are complementary and essential inputs, there is a need to enhance their use efficiency by increasing crop yield relative to that of evapotranspiration and nutrient losses. India has to produce more food (345 m t by 2030) for ever increasing population with declining water and nutrients availability, thus enhancing nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and water use efficiency (WUE) are most critical and turn daunting research issues. Cereals viz., wheat, rice and maize are the major crops in India and together consume the highest amount of irrigation water and fertilizers (60-65 %) as compared to other crops, but with low efficiency (NUE 30-50% and WUE 3.7-12.6 kg ha mm-1). The increased productivity in these crops is most critical to meet the future food demand in India. This can be achieved by enhanced WUE and NUE through adoption of efficient methods of irrigation and fertilizer application.

Since the inception of green revolution there has been unbridled exploitation of farm natural resources and inordinate use of input resources for increasing food grain production. However, the production has increased on diminished pattern as compared to linear consumption pattern of input farm and natural resources. Nutrient water plant interactions play a crucial role in understanding the mechanism governing the efficient use of input farm resources. Water, fertilizer, and soil are the major components of sustaining and increasing the productivity of cropping system. A sincere effort on part of agricultural scientists including extension workers is needed to increase input use efficiency in the farm fields. This paper highlights the various management strategies of determining the input use efficiency of farm resources.

The floating system is an interesting culture system on a liquid media that can be applied to produce fresh vegetables ready to eat, that are more appreciated by the consumers. The aim of this study was the optimization of the red type radish production on float system in order to obtain a high quality fresh product. Two growing cycles (from May 19 to June 8 and from June 11 to July 1, 2004) were carried out to investigate the effects of two cultivars (Girox and Suprella), and two plant density, (720 and 1368 plant/m 2 ) on yield and radish quality. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Yield, as number of plant/m 2 , fresh and dry weight of leaves and hypocotyls, mineral content and antioxidant activity of leaves and hypocotyls were measured. The 720 plants/m 2 investments give the highest yield a valid agronomic result immediately practicable and allow a higher investment in comparison with conventional system on soil (~300 plants/m 2 ). The obtained product was suitable for radish as ready to eat product and had an high quality as regard to its antioxidant activity. The results demonstrated that the grower may improve yield and fruit quality of radish by switching from soil to floating system cultivation.

Rafique. Effect of different plant spacing on the performance of radish in the agro-climatic conditions of Swabi. Pure and Applied Biology. http://dx. Abstract To study the effect of different spacing on the performance of radish under the agro-climatic conditions of Swabi, a trial was carried out at Agricultural Farm, The University of Swabi, Pakistan. Radish seeds were sown at different plant spacing of 6 (control), 12 and 18 centimeter (cm). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block (RCB) Design with three replications. There was a significant effect of plant-to-plant spacing on number of leaves, petiole width (cm), leaf blade width (cm), petiole length, root weight plant-1 , root width (mid), biomass and root length. Maximum number of leaves (41.66), petiole width (1.34), leaf blade width (17.38), petiole length (4.16), root weight plant-1 (1625gm), root length (43.36 cm) root width (mid) (7.34 cm) and biomass (1726 g) were recorded in plants with spacing of 18 cm, while minimum number of leaves (29.31), petiole width (0.68), leaf blade width (12.35 cm), petiole length (2.7 cm), root weight plant-1 (810.3gm) root length (31.75 cm) root width (mid) (5.10 cm) and biomass (1076 g) were recorded in plants with plant-to-plant distance of 6 cm. Based on the results, it is recommended that plant spacing of 18 cm should be kept for optimum growth and maximum production of radish in agro-climatic conditions of Swabi region.

A field experiment was carried out to assess the role of exogenously applied salicylic acid (SA) on radish (Raphanus staivus L.) plants grown in artificially cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soils. For this purpose, SA (300 mg L -1 ) was applied as foliar spray on control and Cd-stressed (0.5 mM and 1.0 mM CdCl 2 ) plants at vegetative stage and its influence on Cd toxicity at vegetative and mature stages was examined. A progressive increase in the uptake of Cd and its accumulation in radish plant parts was observed with increase of CdCl 2 concentration in the soil, which retarded root growth while stimulated the shoot growth. Reproductive stages like inflorescence raceme length, number of branches of inflorescence raceme and number of siliques per plant were enhanced due to presence of Cd in the soil. Foliar application of SA substantially retarded Cd uptake in radish plants thereby improved root vegetative characters resulting in amelioration of Cd-toxicity. Moreover, SA improved shoot characters, contributed to weight gain by mature siliques and positively influenced inflorescence and raceme characters.