Moringa Bio-stimulator with Soil Organic Nitrogen Ameliorated Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Drought Tolerance for Healthy Proso-millet Production
摘要
The interactive effect of moringa bio-stimulant, soil organic nitrogen and drought stress was evaluated at agronomic field research area, Institute of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan during the summer season of years 2018 and 2019. Data revealed that proso-millet plants performed better after the moringa (MLE30) application of MLE30-priming + MLE30 spray with soil amendments of nitrogen + press mud and achieved significantly better results in morphological growth, development and yield components under normal irrigation conditions followed by vegetative drought & reproductive drought during year-II than year‑I of project study. The applied drought stress at vegetative & reproductive stages diminished the water use efficiency, nitrogen use efficiency, and chlorophyll contents, while plants treated with MLE30-priming + MLE30 spray, along with soil conditioning (nitrogen + press mud), improved the drought tolerance by boosting up the antioxidant behavior during the both years I & II of the trials. Biplot and heatmap analysis mentioned the positively increasing trend and significant interaction between the observed attributes of proso-millet crop. The average both years of economic analysis demonstrated the treatment MLE30-priming + MLE30 spray with soil conditioning of nitrogen + press mud attained the maximum net income as well as benefit-cost ratio as compared to others as a single factor during vegetative drought and reproductive drought after normal irrigations. So, outcomes of this project study suggested that moringa bio-stimulant treatment along-with soil organic nitrogen treatment is the sustainable and cost-effective agronomic approach for achieving the healthy proso-millet production under unfavorable environmental drought stress condition.