Biological nitrogen fixation to maximize productivity of intercropped legumes and non-legumes: Ten years of field experimentations in semi-arid deserts of Egypt
- Citation:
- Hegazi, N. A., and M. Fayez, "Biological nitrogen fixation to maximize productivity of intercropped legumes and non-legumes: Ten years of field experimentations in semi-arid deserts of Egypt", Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science, vol. 47, issue 1-2, pp. 103 - 131, 2001.
Abstract:
A number of field trials was executed in semi-arid deserts of Ismailia, Egypt, to experiment growth and productivity of sole or mixed canopies of legumes (soybean, leucaena, sesbania, berseem and grasspea) and non-legumes (corn, Rhodes grass, elephant grass, ryegrass and barley) when inoculated with N 2 -fixing bacteria (diazotrophs) in presence or absence of N fertilizers. An average estimate of > 20 Kg N acre −1 was transferred to neighbouring unfertilized corn, and land equivalent ratio (LER) reached 1.35. Rhodes grass mixed with sesbania or leucaena produced higher biomass yield compared to pure N-fertilized stands; increases of 66–91% and 22–29% were reported for inoculated and non-inoculated plants respectively. In mixed canopy with berseem, dry matter yield of the non-legume partner increased compared to that in pure stands, being higher for barley (120–255%) compared to ryegrass (62–115%). Similar trends were scored with N yield. Response of elephant grass to inoculation with associative diazotrophs was more pronounced when intercropped with leucaena as increases over pure stand in dry matter production approximated 40%. On the other hand, both grasspea and barley were negatively affected by intercropping. Total biomass and N-yields of barley were more affected than grasspea. © 2001 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Notes:
Cited By :2Export Date: 26 April 2021