The response of symbiotic performance, growth and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. ) genotypes to phosphorus fertilizer rates and rhizobial inoculation

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) is adapted to cool-seasons and its organs are of high nutritive value and serve as cheap sources of protein, especially in developing countries. Chickpea crop is mainly grown for human consumption, animal feed and for medicinal purposes. The introduction and promotion of chickpea to especially small-scale South African crop farmers has multiple objectives including the improvement of soil fertility. Small-scale farmer’s flounder to afford Nfertilizers, coupled with the challenges faced by programmes aimed at assisting them about soil fertility in their cropping fields that are still without enough N concentration to meet N demand. It is therefore important that other alternatives that can help improve the N status of soils be explored. The shoot δ13C is an indicator of WUE in C3 plants. However, shoot-WUE is affected by a variety of factors including genotypes, phosphorus fertilizer application and availability of native or introduced rhizobial bacteria. However, not much is known on whether application of phosphate fertilizer, seed inoculation with rhizobial strain affect the shoot C/N ratio of chickpea genotypes in South Africa. Therefore, field experiments were established at Thohoyandou and Syferkuil in Limpopo to assess the role of phosphorus fertilization and rhizobial inoculation on C assimilation, C/N ratio and shoot-WUE of chickpea genotypes. Field experiments were conducted during winter season in 2016 and 2017 (April to August). Treatments consisted of a factorial combination of two rates of phosphorus fertilizer (0 and 90 kg P ha-1 ), four desi chickpea genotypes (ACC#1, ACC#2, ACC#3 and ACC#5) and two rhizobial inoculation levels (bradyrhizobium strain and without rhizobial strain. In Thohoyandou, ACC#1 showed greater grain yield in 2016 and 2017. Which was associated with more branches and greater plant height. Furthermore, the interaction between genotypes, phosphorus fertilizer and rhizobial inoculation had significant effect on grain yield in 2016. ACC#1, 3 and 5 of chickpea genotypes fixed the most N compared to that of ACC#2. In addition, ACC#5 had the highest soil N-uptake in both seasons followed by ACC#3, while ACC#1 had the least value of soil N-uptake in both seasons. Phosphorus fertilizer application increased the fixation of N by 36.8% (P≤0.01), and similarly in soil N-uptake by difference of 59.9% compared to control in 2016. Furthermore, rhizobial inoculation increased N-fixed in 2016 and soil N-uptake in both seasons. ACC#5 had the highest N fixed at phosphorus-fertilized with bradyrhizobuim across two locations in both seasons. ACC#5 depended more on soil N-uptake than fixing its own N as compared to ACC#1. N fixation differed across seasons; however, ACC#3 had greater N-fixed in both locations. Moreover, chickpea genotype that fixed more N had least δ15N. This finding indicates that N fixation is exhibited by the genotypes that depend less on δ15N, because N2 fixation is inhibited by high soil N concentration or δ15N. Furthermore, ACC#2 and ACC#3 had greater δ13C at Thohoyandou in 2017; chickpea genotypes had significant effect on δ13C at P≤0.05 at Thohoyandou, 2016. The results showed that ACC#1 with phosphorus fertilizer application and no bradyrhizobium strain showed greater δ13C. Also, δ13C increased with a decrease in N-fixed (r=.1000), this indicates that there was a functional relationship between plant WUE and N fixation in chickpea, probably because improved water use in legumes supports N fixation.