Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations
Abstract Over the past century, the average surface temperature and recurrent heatwaves have been steadily rising, especially during the summer season, which is affecting the yield potential of most food crops. Hence, diversification in cropping systems with suitable fertilizer management is an urge...
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Nature Portfolio
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52862-2 |
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| author | Anju Bijarnia J. P. Tetarwal Anil Kumar Gupta Arjun Lal Bijarnia Rajendra Kumar Yadav Baldev Ram Roshan Kumawat Monika Choudhary Rajesh Kumar Deepak Singh |
| author_facet | Anju Bijarnia J. P. Tetarwal Anil Kumar Gupta Arjun Lal Bijarnia Rajendra Kumar Yadav Baldev Ram Roshan Kumawat Monika Choudhary Rajesh Kumar Deepak Singh |
| author_sort | Anju Bijarnia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Over the past century, the average surface temperature and recurrent heatwaves have been steadily rising, especially during the summer season, which is affecting the yield potential of most food crops. Hence, diversification in cropping systems with suitable fertilizer management is an urgent need to ensure high yield potential during the summer season. Since intercropping has emerged as an important strategy to increase food production, the present study comprises five intercropping systems in the main plot (sole cowpea, sole baby corn, cowpea + baby corn in 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 row ratio), three levels of fertilizer viz. 100 (N20 P40), 125 (N25 P50), and 150% (N30 P60) recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) in the subplot, along with two stress-mitigating chemicals (0.5% CaCl2 and 1% KNO3) in the sub-sub plots. A split-split plot system with four replications was established to carry out the field experiment. The effect of intercropping, fertilizer levels, and stress-mitigating chemicals on crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR), plant temperature, relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll content of cowpea and baby corn, as well as cowpea equivalent yield (CEY), was investigated during the summer seasons of 2019 and 2020. The experiment was conducted at Agriculture University, Kota (Rajasthan), India. Results showed that CGR, RGR, RWC and chlorophyll content of both crops and CEY were maximum under intercropping of cowpea and baby corn in a 2:1 row ratio compared to other intercropping systems. However, the plant temperature of both crops was significantly lower under this system. CEY, CGR, RGR, and chlorophyll content were considerably greater in the subplots with a fertilizer application of 150% RDF compared to lower levels of fertilizer (100 and 125% RDF). Our findings further show that foliar application of CaCl2 0.5% at the flowering and pod-developing stages of cowpea dramatically boosted CEY, CGR, RGR, RWC, and chlorophyll content of both crops and lowered the plant temperature. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T15:06:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c2b1ef70488d487d9e42bffd637a38f0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T15:06:32Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
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| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-c2b1ef70488d487d9e42bffd637a38f02024-03-05T18:52:48ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-02-0114111610.1038/s41598-024-52862-2Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variationsAnju Bijarnia0J. P. Tetarwal1Anil Kumar Gupta2Arjun Lal Bijarnia3Rajendra Kumar Yadav4Baldev Ram5Roshan Kumawat6Monika Choudhary7Rajesh Kumar8Deepak Singh9Department of Agronomy, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Agronomy, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Plant-Physiology, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Agrostology, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Soil Science, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Agronomy, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Agronomy, Agriculture UniversityDepartment of Agronomy, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & TechnologyDepartment of Plant-Physiology, Agriculture UniversityDivision of Sample Surveys, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research InstituteAbstract Over the past century, the average surface temperature and recurrent heatwaves have been steadily rising, especially during the summer season, which is affecting the yield potential of most food crops. Hence, diversification in cropping systems with suitable fertilizer management is an urgent need to ensure high yield potential during the summer season. Since intercropping has emerged as an important strategy to increase food production, the present study comprises five intercropping systems in the main plot (sole cowpea, sole baby corn, cowpea + baby corn in 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1 row ratio), three levels of fertilizer viz. 100 (N20 P40), 125 (N25 P50), and 150% (N30 P60) recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) in the subplot, along with two stress-mitigating chemicals (0.5% CaCl2 and 1% KNO3) in the sub-sub plots. A split-split plot system with four replications was established to carry out the field experiment. The effect of intercropping, fertilizer levels, and stress-mitigating chemicals on crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR), plant temperature, relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll content of cowpea and baby corn, as well as cowpea equivalent yield (CEY), was investigated during the summer seasons of 2019 and 2020. The experiment was conducted at Agriculture University, Kota (Rajasthan), India. Results showed that CGR, RGR, RWC and chlorophyll content of both crops and CEY were maximum under intercropping of cowpea and baby corn in a 2:1 row ratio compared to other intercropping systems. However, the plant temperature of both crops was significantly lower under this system. CEY, CGR, RGR, and chlorophyll content were considerably greater in the subplots with a fertilizer application of 150% RDF compared to lower levels of fertilizer (100 and 125% RDF). Our findings further show that foliar application of CaCl2 0.5% at the flowering and pod-developing stages of cowpea dramatically boosted CEY, CGR, RGR, RWC, and chlorophyll content of both crops and lowered the plant temperature.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52862-2 |
| spellingShingle | Anju Bijarnia J. P. Tetarwal Anil Kumar Gupta Arjun Lal Bijarnia Rajendra Kumar Yadav Baldev Ram Roshan Kumawat Monika Choudhary Rajesh Kumar Deepak Singh Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations Scientific Reports |
| title | Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations |
| title_full | Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations |
| title_fullStr | Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations |
| title_short | Alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea-baby corn intercropping with stress-reducing chemicals and fertility variations |
| title_sort | alleviating summer heat stress in cowpea baby corn intercropping with stress reducing chemicals and fertility variations |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52862-2 |
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