Water use Efficiency with Interaction of Plants Nutrients Usage

M D Lengwati

Published: November 30, 2021

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Abstract  

Plant Nutrient Role and Requirement: Plants like other organisms require “FOOD” for their living and growth development. From chemical elements drawn from soil, water, and air, plants build a vast array of plant products.
Plan for Agricultural Water Management: Alleviation and reduction of poverty amongst people in mainly rural areas, and rehabilitation, protection and reclamation of water works and water resources.
Materials and Methods: Cow peas (Vigna Unguiculata), (Vigna subterranean – bambara groundnut, Groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea L.), Black gram (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) and Mungbeans (Vigna radiate (L.) Wilzcek). Field trial lay out plan (Randomized Complete Block Design), plant sampling and processing (10 plants per plot size), measurement of ¹³C/¹²C isotopic ratio (Lab instrument; Spectrometry) and statistical analysis Statistica 10.1 (StatSoftInc., Tulsa, OK, USA).
Results: Although there are several reports on symbiotic (N) performance of cowpea, Bambara groundnut, groundnut and mungbean, studies on their C accumulation, shoot C/N ratio, and shoot-water-use efficiency are few. Therefore, evaluation of these parameters in the test grain legumes widely cultivated in South African smallholder sector it was an objectives of the current study where groundnut exhibited high WUE compared to the other grain legumes planted for testing.
Discussion: The aim of this study was therefore to determine the C accumulation and WUE of five grain legumes using C isotopic discrimination (¹³C/¹²C) values during the 2011/2012 cropping season. South Africa is a semi-arid country with an annual average rainfall < 500 mm in two-thirds of its land mass.
Conclusion: Shoot-biomass (g.plant^-1) was high to Bambara-groundnut, C concentration (%) was also high to both Bambara- groundnut and groundnut, C content (g.plant_^-1) was higher to Bambara-groundnut, Σ¹³C (‰) was high to groundnut and Bambara-groundnut while the C:N ratio of mung-bean was highest in the study. Therefore WUE reveal that groundnut and Bambara-groundnut are the best users of water whereas other legumes utilize water inefficient compared to the two legumes.