Tamrin Abdullah, Irwan Irwan, Tutik Kuswinanti, Itji Diana Daud, Asman Asman*, Andi Nasruddin, Nurariaty Agus

Department of Plant Pests and Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia

Abstract

Entomopathogenic fungi have been proved controlling plant pests, and most of the entomopathogenic fungi isolated from the agroecosystem. The research was carried out to characterize the entomopathogenic fungi diversity associated with different agroecosystem on a different location in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Fungi of rice field ecosystems were found more diverse than on dryland ecosystems, and the genus was Fusarium species, Aspergillus species, Rhizopus species, Trichoderma species, Penicillium species, Rhizoctonia species and Metharizium species. Moreover, Fusarium species and Rhizopus species were the most frequent genus isolated from rice field ecosystem, while on dryland ecosystems, the fungus of Metharizium species found more frequent than Fusarium species and Aspergillus species According to a geographical location on rice field ecosystems. The number of fungi isolated on the regency of Gowa more numerous than regency of Sidrap, Takalar, and Pinrang. Meanwhile, on the dryland ecosystems, three locations were the city of Makassar, the regency of Maros, and the regency of Polman. Among three areas, the regency of Maros founded more fungi than regency of Polman and Makassar. This study exhibits the diversity of fungi on the rice field, and dryland ecosystems were quite different.

 Keywords: Entomopathogenic fungi, Agroecosystem soil, Diversity, South Sulawesi

Hafeez ur Rahim^*1,2, Ishaq Ahmad Mian¹, Muhammad Arif ³, Sajjad Ahmad³, Zaid Khan³

¹Department of Soil & Environmental Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan

²School of Environmental sciences and technology, Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning, China

³Department of Agronomy, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

There are numerous benefits of biochar and summer legumes in the soil fertility status enhancement, so, keeping in consideration these benefits, a research study was designed to investigate the soil fertility status influence with the carryover effect of biochar and summer legumes at the UAP Research Farm, during winter 2016-2017. An experiment in the rotation was conducted in summer 2016 having three summer legumes for a specific purpose i.e. mungbean (grain), sesbania (green manuring), and cowpea (fodder), control was also comprised. Biochar synthesized domestically in a furnace from small wood cuttings on a pyrolysis temperature (400–500^◦C) and applied once to legumes @ 0, 5 and 10 tons ha^-1. When the legumes were harvested, the residues of sesbania remained in the soil, while the residues of the other two legumes were taken away. The test for soil fertility status investigation was performed on subsequent wheat in RCBD with three replicates on the previous field layout of legumes. Significantly maximum soil total nitrogen, extractable P, K, Fe, Zn, Mn were obtained in the plots previously incorporated with sesbania. However, Cu was not significantly affected. While, in the case of preceding biochar, maximum soil total nitrogen, extractable P, K, Cu, Fe, Zn, and Mn were obtained on 10 tons ha^-1. The biochar-legumes interaction was significant for macronutrients while non-significant for micronutrients. Thus, it is concluded that preceding legumes and previously applied biochar showed a significant carry-over effect on soil fertility status.

Keywords: Biochar, Summer legumes, Soil fertility status

Rafi Qamar1, Imtiaz Anjum1, Atique-ur-Rehman2*, Muhammad Ehsan Safdar1, Hafiz Muhammad, Rashad Javeed3, Abdul Rehman1, Yasir Ramzan4
1Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
2Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
3Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Pakistan
4Wheat Research Institute, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Climate change emerges in different forms such as drought, which is prevalent all over the world, especially in semi-arid and arid regions. Crop production especially wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield is affected due to water shortage at critical growth stages in Pakistan. A greenhouse experiment was conducted by using plastic trays to assess the performance of wheat to exogenous silicon (Si) application under water stress which in applied through skipping irrigation at critical stages at College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan. Experiment include irrigation levels (I1: irrigation at crown root stage + booting stage, I2: irrigation at crown root stage + anthesis stage, I3: crown root stage + grain development stage, I4: crown root stage + booting stage + anthesis stage + grain development stage, I5: crown root stage + tillering stage + booting stage + earing stage + milking stage + dough stage) and foliar application of Si viz., Si0: 0% (Control), Si1: 0.25%, Si2: 0.50%, and Si3: 1% (w/v). Treatment combination I1 + Si0 significantly reduced yield and yield attributes, net assimilation rate, Si contents in plants, leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, root length and water use efficiency furthermore, increased evapotranspiration efficiency. In contrast, treatment combination I5 + Si3 significantly increased these parameters and reduced evapotranspiration efficiency. Moreover, treatment combinations I4 + Si3 and I3 + Si3 were statistically at par with treatment combination I5 + Si3 which indicating the role of Si in mitigating negative impact of water shortage and improved these parameters. It is concluded that plant exhibited positive response at irrigation levels I3 and I4 in combination with foliar-applied Si3 while irrigation level lower than I3 with Si3 was not showed positive improvement in crop productivity.

Keywords: Net assimilation rate, Silicon, Water stress, Water use efficiency, Relative water content