The effects of climate change on North Kordofan state ecosystems are severe, widespread and affect food security as well as productivity; hence in the latest years the state characterized by limited rain fall situations. Therefore, efficient use of microdosing fertilizers seems to be of vital importance to enhance productivity of the rain-fed crops cultivated in the area. The present research was conducted during two successive rainy seasons (2014/15 - 2015/16) at two locations. The research was carried out to investigate the effect of micro- dose of NPK with control treatments on yield of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). The study concerned with pearl millet yield attributes such as: number of tillers per plant, tillers weight (g), 1000-grain weight (g) and yield (ton/ha). In case of cowpea the attributes include: number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100-seeds weight (g) and seed yield (ton/ha). The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with six replications. Data were analyzed using (ANOVA). In pearl millet, micro dose was significantly higher than control in number of tillers per plant and tillers weight found to be 24.12g in case of dose application and 17.80g in control. The results showed highly significant effect of micro-dose in pearl millet yield (p ≤ 0.05), high micro dose recorded 3.30 ton/ha, while the control recorded 2.17 ton/ha. On the other hand cowpea produced the highest number of pod per plant under micro-dose (24.06) and (17.61) with control. The highest number of seeds per pod was demonstrated by micro-dose treatments which resulted in increased final seed yield of 2.65 ton/ha as compare to control 1.69 ton/ha. It was concluded that application of micro-dose of NPK had a significant effect in most studied attributes and shortening the maturity period. Therefore, to increase yield and yield components in the study area during rainy seasons application of micro-dose of NPK is recommended.

Keywords: Cowpea; Micro-Dose; Pearl Millet

References

1. Lobell D., et al. “Climate trends and global crop production since 1980”. Science (2011).
2. Osman AK and Ali MK. “Crop production under traditional rain-fed agriculture”. In Proceedings of the National Symposium on: Sustainable Rain-Fe Agriculture, Khartoum, Sudan (2009): 113-131.
3. Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO. The State of Food Insecurity in the World of the United Nations, Rome, Italy (2013).
4. El Naim AM and Jabereldar AA. “Effect of Plant density and cultivar on growth and yield of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata Walp)”. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 4 (2010): 3148-3153.
5. Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO. Policy statement and plan of action of the world food summit, draft working paper at inter-sectional working group of the committee of world food security, Rome (2012).
6. Elgailani A Abdalla., et al. “The Response of Sorghum, Groundnut, Sesame, and Cowpea to Seed Priming and Fertilizer Micro-Dosing in South Kordofan State Sudan (2015).
7. Gomez KA and Gomez AA. “Randomized complete block design analysis”. In: statistical procedures for Agricultural Research. John Willy and Sons (1984).
8. Reddy MG., et al. “Effect of nitrogen on nitrogen and phosphorus uptake in finger millet”. Indian Journal of Agricultural Research 1 (1986): 29-32.
9. Frank AB., et al. “Carbohydrate, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of spring wheat leaves and stems”. Agronomy Journal 81 (1988): 524-528.
10. Chellamuthu V and Agrwal. “Effect of Bio fertilizers and inorganic fertilizer on the fodder yield of bajra”. Madras Agriculture 87 (2004): 183-185.
11. Kui Liu BLMa., et al. “Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium nutrient effects on grain filling and yield of high-yielding summer corn”. Journal of Plant Nutrition 34 (2011): 1516-1531.
12. Sharma MP and Gupta JP. “Effect of organic materials on grain yield and soil properties in maize wheat cropping systems”. Indian Journal of Agriculture Sciences 68 (1998): 715-717.
13. Maqsood M., et al. “Effect of variable rate of nitrogen and phosphorus on growth and yield of maize (golden)”. Online Journal of Biological Sciences 1 (2001): 19-20.
14. Asghar A., et al. “Growth and yield of maize cultivars affected by NPK application in different proportion”. Pakistan Journal of Sciences4 (2010): 211-216.
15. Yakubu H., et al. “Effect of Phosphorus Fertilizer on Nitrogen Fixation by Some Grain Legume Varieties in Sudan – Sahelian Zone of North Eastern Nigeria”. Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Science1 (2010): 19-26.
16. Ulzen J. “Assessing the need for inoculation of soybean and cowpea at Tono in the KassenaNankana district of the upper east region of Ghana”. MSc thesis, Faculty of Agriculture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana (2013).
17. Daramy MAJ., et al. “THE effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer application on crude protein, nutrient concentration and nodulation of cowpea in Ghanavol ARPN”. Journal of Agricultural and Biological Science 11 (2016).
18. Singh A., et al. “Influence of phosphorus on the performance of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L] Walp) varieties in Sudan savanna of Nigeria”. Journal of Agriculture Sciences 2 (2011): 313-317.
19. Owolade OF., et al. “Phosphorus Level Affects Brown Blotch Disease, Development and Yield of Cowpea”. World Journal of Agricultural 2 (2006): 105-108.
20. Rajput AL. “Response of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) to rhizobium inoculation, Date of sowing and phosphorus”. Indian Journal of Agronomy 39 (1994): 584-587.
21. Daramy MAJ., et al. “Effect of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer application on growth and yield performance of cowpea”. Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences1 (2017): 2320-8694.
22. Nyoki D and Ndakidemi PA. “Economic benefits of Brady rhizobium japonica inoculation and phosphorus supplementation in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp) grown in northern Tanzania”. American Journal of Research Communication11 (2013): 173-189.
23. Sarker PC., et al. “Effect of rhizobium inoculants on cowpea under rainfed condition”. Parkistan Journal of Biological Sciences6 (2001): 654-656.

Citation

Citation: Mohammed Alhadi Ebrahiem., et al. “Effects of Micro-Dose (NPK) Fertilizer on Yield of Subsistence Rain-Fed Crops in North Kordofan State, Sudan". Acta Scientific Agriculture 4.6 (2020): 03-07.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Mohammed Alhadi Ebrahiem., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.