Nitrogen availability can be enhanced with the application of nitrogen fixing bacteria and it may be helpful in increasing forage yield and improving quality of oat. Therefore, a field trial to evaluate the effect of seed inoculation with nitrogen fixing bacteria on forage yield and quality of oat was carried out at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during Rabi season 2013-14. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangements using three replications. The experiment was comprised of two integrated approaches. The first approach was oat cultivars consisting of four treatments, V 1 (AVON), V 2 (S-2000), V 3 (S-2011) and V 4 (PD2LV65) and the second approach was seed inoculation consisting of three treatments, S 0 (control), S 1 ( Azotobacter spp.), S 2 ( Azospirillum spp.). Fisher’s analysis of variance technique was used for statistically interpretation of data by using least significant difference (LSD) test at 5% level of probability. Nitrogen fixing bacteria significantly affect the germination count (m 2), plant height (cm), number of tillers (m 2), number of leaves per tiller, leaf area per tiller (cm 2), green forage yield (t·ha -1) and dry matter yield (t ha -1). The maximum green forage yield (85.2 t·ha -1), dry matter yield (14.1 t ·ha -1) and crude protein (11.5%) were recorded where Azotobacter inoculation was applied. The interaction between cultivars and nitrogenous strains was significant for green forage yield (t·ha -1), dry matter yield (t·ha -1) and crude protein (%). Conclusion showed that cultivar Sargodha-2011 which was inoculated with Azotobacter spp. gave higher forage yield of good quality.
Oat (Avena sativa L.) is a cereal forage crop which belongs to poaceae family. In Pakistan it is cultivated in irrigated and rainfed conditions. It contains large amount of digestible crude protein, total digestible nutrients (TDN), vitamin B1, minerals and fat. It is favorite feed of animals and its straw is soft and superior to wheat and barley. The oat grain is valuable feed for dairy cows, horses, poultry and young breeding animals [
There are many factors responsible for the low yield, but the use of traditional or low yielding cultivars and poor adaptation of management practices is of main importance [
Bio-fertilizers comprise of microorganisms which are capable to nutrients mobilization by using biological process [
The use of chemical and inorganic fertilizer is increasing in this modern era which deteriorates our soil health and also pollutes our environment, so bio-fertilizers or organic manures would be a viable option to sustain our production system [
Bacteria present in sufficient amount in rhizosphere enhance the growth and yield of interested crop as reported by [
Azotobacter and Azospirillum are potential bio-fertilizers and are capable to contribute nitrogen to a number of non-leguminous crops and can help us to increase quality and yield of forage crops without increased application of chemical fertilizers that pollute the environment.
A field trial to evaluate the effect of seed inoculation with nitrogenous strains on forage yield and quality of oat was carried out at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during Rabi season 2013-14. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with factorial arrangements using three replications. The net plot size was 2.4 m × 6 m. The experiment was comprised of two integrated approaches. First approach was oat cultivars consisting of four treatments, V1 (AVON), V2 (S-2000), V3 (S-2011) and V4 (PD2LV65) and second approach was seed inoculation consisting of three treatments, S0 (control), S1 (Azotobacterspp.), S2 (Azospirillum spp.). Oat cultivars and nitrogenous strains culture were obtained from Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan. Crop was sown with the recommended seed rate of 75 kg∙ha−1 on December 10th, 2013 by using single row hand drill in 30 cm apart rows. The phosphorus at the rate of 60 kg∙ha−1 was applied in the form of Di-ammoniumphosphate (DAP) was applied at sowing time. The nitrogen at the rate of 80 kg∙ha−1 was applied in the form of urea. Half dose of nitrogen was applied at sowing time while remaining half dose was applied with first irrigation. The total of three irrigations was given to the crop from sowing to harvest. All other agronomic practices (irrigation, weeds control, insect pest control and harvesting etc.) were kept constant for all the treatments.
The experiment was carried out at the Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during the year 2013-14. Experimental site lies between 30.35 - 41.47 N latitude and 72.08 - 73.40 E longitude at an elevation of 184.4 m above sea level.
The crop was harvested 90 days after sowing when 50% of flowering had been occurred. The data on yield and yield component like (number of tillers, plant height, leaf area per tiller, number of leaves per tiller, leaf to stem ratio, green forage yield and dry matter yield) While quality parameters (dry matter percentage, crude protein percentage, total ash percentage and ether extractable fat percentage) both were recorded by standard procedure.
“Conversion of the nitrogenous compounds of the sample into ammonium sulphate (NH4)2SO4 by boiling with sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and subsequent decomposition of ammonium sulphate with fixed alkali (40% NaOH) and collection of ammonia in an acid solution was titrated against an acid of known strength and N of the sample was computed.”
Oven dried 1.0 g of plant material, 25 - 30 ml of commercial H2SO4 and 5 g of digestion mixture (K2SO4: FeSO4:CuSO4 = 85:05:10) was added and then digested the plant material in the digestion chamber until transparent or colourless content appeared (3 - 5 hours), cooled and made the volume up to 250 ml and 10 ml was taken from this for distillation of each sample. Nitrogen evolved as ammonia was collected in a receiving flask containing 4% boric acid solution and mixed indicator (methyl red). Its colour was changed to white from pink and then it was titrated against standard (0.1 N) H2SO4 up to golden yellowish colour (end point). The volume of acid used was recorded and N% was calculated by the formula given below.
The N% was then multiplied by 6.25 to get crude protein percentage.
Fisher’s analysis of variance technique was used for statistically interpretation of data by using least significant difference (LSD) test at 5% level of probability.
Number of tillers m−2 is an important yield contributing parameter. Higher number of tillers higher will be the fodder yield (t∙ha−1). However, the data in
Treatment | Number of tillers (m−2) | Plant height (cm) | Number of leaves per tiller | Leaf area per tiller (cm2) | Leaf to stem ratio | Green forage yield (t∙ha−1) | Dry forage yield (t∙ha−1) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oat cultivars | |||||||
V1 | 763.03 B | 141.70 B | 5.93 B | 205.11 B | 0.392 B | 67.98 | 10.14 |
V2 | 700.17 C | 137.31 C | 5.75 B | 166.47 C | 0.394 B | 65.43 | 9.43 |
V3 | 790.87 A | 143.97 A | 6.62 A | 217.22 A | 0.425 A | 72.72 | 11.03 |
V4 | 713.66 C | 132.17 D | 5.37 C | 148.97 D | 0.370 C | 62.38 | 8.47 |
LSD value | 13.51 | 2.225 | 3.70 | 7.48 | 0.0077 | 1.25 | 0.13 |
F value | 63.38** | 16.95** | 26.01** | 157.80** | 73.24** | 103.73** | 591.37** |
Inoculation | |||||||
So | 726.19 C | 131.05 C | 5.64 B | 169.09 C | 0.380 C | 52.18 | 6.67 |
S1 | 759.80 A | 146.23 A | 6.17 A | 198.01 A | 0.412 A | 79.85 | 12.7 |
S2 | 739.81 B | 139.09 B | 5.95A | 186.22 B | 0.394 B | 69.36 | 9.94 |
LSD value | 15.60 | 3.21 | 3.21 | 6.48 | 0.0067 | 1.88 | 0.11 |
F value | 13.46** | 48.13** | 19.16** | 43.31** | 47.74** | 1411.2** | 6114.2** |
V × S | |||||||
V1So | 746.7 | 133.7 | 5.7 | 185.0 | 0.369 | 51.7 h | 6.7 j |
V2So | 702.7 | 131.43 | 5.4 | 154.3 | 0.384 | 52.1 h | 6.1 k |
V3So | 771.9 | 136.1 | 6.1 | 202.2 | 0.408 | 57.9 g | 8.3 i |
V4So | 683.2 | 122.9 | 5.2 | 134.7 | 0.359 | 47 i | 5.4 l |
V1S1 | 781.1 | 147.7 | 6.2 | 220.2 | 0.418 | 82.0 b | 13.4 b |
V2S1 | 708.8 | 145 | 5.8 | 176.9 | 0.406 | 77.6 c | 12.2 c |
V3S1 | 810.3 | 151.9 | 7.2 | 229.5 | 0.441 | 85.2 a | 14.1 a |
V4S1 | 738.8 | 139 | 5.4 | 165.38 | 0.383 | 74.5 d | 11 d |
V1S2 | 761.2 | 143.6 | 5.8 | 210.0 | 0.388 | 70.2 e | 10.2 f |
V2S2 | 688.8 | 135.1 | 6.0 | 168.1 | 0.394 | 66.5 f | 9.9 g |
V3S2 | 790.2 | 143.8 | 6.5 | 219.9 | 0.424 | 75 d | 10.5 e |
V4S2 | 718.8 | 133.7 | 5.4 | 146.8 | 0.368 | 65.5 f | 8.9 h |
LSD value | …… | …… | …… | …… | …… | 2.18 | 0.23 |
F value | 1.65NS | 0.66NS | 1.54NS | 0.69NS | 1.84NS | 2.73** | 37.43* |
* = Significant at p ≤ 0.05; ** = Significant at p ≤ 0.01; NS = Non-significant; V = Cultivars; S = Inoculation; So = Control (Un-inoculated); S1 = Seed treated with Azotobacter spp.; S2 = Seed treated with Azospirillum spp.; V1 = Avon; V2 = Sargodha-2000; V3 = Sargodha-2011; V4 = PD2LV65; Any two means not sharing a letter in common in a row differ significantly at p ≤ 0.05.
of tillers were recorded where Azotobacter inoculation was applied and the lowest number of tillers were recorded in un-inoculated (control) treatment. The increase in number of tillers with inoculation may be due to the fact that Azotobacter and Azospirillumare nitrogen fixing bacteria which increased nitrogen availability and produced growth hormones which resulted in production of more number of tillers (m−2). These results confirm the findings of [
Plant height is an important growth related parameter which is directly correlated with productivity of plants in terms of forage yield. Data regarding plant height in
Leaf area is the measure of the size of assimilatory system of plant. Leaf area is produce of leaf length, breadth and leaf number per plant. However, data in
Total number of leaves play a dynamic role in overall development and growth of the plant because leaves act as the basic factory for food production. However, data in
Cultivars differed significantly regarding the data in
Green forage yield reveals about the total biomass attained by the plant during its life cycle under prevailing conditions and it has mainly three constituents stalk, pith and grain yield. Data regarding plant height in
Dry forage production is basically a measure of photosynthetic efficiency of assimilatory system in plants. Dried stalk yield refers to the function of maximum nutrients accumulation in plant biomass, the genetic makeup of a crop, soil nutrient status and management strategies. Data regarding dry forage production in
Highly significant differences were also observed among the cultivars for dry matter %; However, data in
Data regarding the crude protein showed that the interaction effect of oat cultivars and inoculation was significant; However, data in
Treatment | Dry matter% | Crude protein % | Total ash % | Fat content % |
---|---|---|---|---|
Oat cultivars | ||||
V1 | 13.39 C | 9.09 | 12.33 B | 4.13 B |
V2 | 15.96 B | 8.86 | 10.98 C | 3.80 C |
V3 | 16.90 A | 10.38 | 13.34 A | 4.50 A |
V4 | 13.99 C | 7.81 | 9.38 D | 3.42 D |
LSD value | 0.81 | 0.99 | 0.29 | |
F value | 24.19** | 13.76** | 21.87** | |
Inoculation | ||||
So | 14.22 C | 7.59 | 9.26 C | 3.39 C |
S1 | 16.34 A | 9.95 | 13.03 A | 4.44 A |
S2 | 15.38 B | 9.56 | 11.74 B | 4.05 B |
LSD value | 0.70 | 1.20 | 0.25 | |
F value | 19.67** | 12.91** | 38.22** | |
V × S | ||||
V1So | 14.2 | 7.4 h | 9.6 | 3.5 |
V2So | 13.9 | 7.3 h | 9.5 | 3.2 |
V3So | 15.6 | 8.7 f | 11.2 | 3.8 |
V4So | 13.0 | 6.8 i | 8.7 | 2.9 |
V1S1 | 15.4 | 10.1 c | 14.2 | 4.7 |
V2S1 | 17.1 | 9.7 d | 12.4 | 4.2 |
V3S1 | 17.8 | 11.5 a | 15.1 | 5.1 |
V4S1 | 14.9 | 8.3 g | 10.4 | 3.8 |
V1S2 | 13.5 | 9.6 d | 13.2 | 4.1 |
V2S2 | 16.8 | 9.5 e | 11.0 | 3.9 |
V3S2 | 17.2 | 10.8 b | 13.7 | 4.6 |
V4S2 | 13.9 | 8.2 g | 9.0 | 3.4 |
LSD value | 0.17 | |||
F value | 2.54NS | 27.47** | 0.54NS | 0.35NS |
* = Significant at p ≤ 0.05; ** = Significant at p ≤ 0.01; NS = Non-significant; V = Cultivars; S = Inoculation; So = Control (Un-inoculated); S1 = Seed treated with Azotobacter spp.; S2 = Seed treated with Azospirillum spp.; V1 = Avon; V2 = Sargodha-2000; V3 = Sargodha-2011; V4 = PD2LV65; Any two means not sharing a letter in common in a row differ significantly at p ≤ 0.05.
Cultivars differed significantly regarding ash contents; However, data in
Cultivars differed significantly regarding ether extractable fat percentage; However, data in
It is concluded that cultivar Sargodha-2011 which was inoculated with Azotobacter spp. gave higher forage yield of good quality under Faisalabad conditions.
MuhammadSaleem,M. Shahid IbniZamir,IhtishamulHaq,M. ZahidIrshad,M. KamranKhan,M.Asim,QamaruzZaman,IhtishamAli,AmanKhan,SaeedurRehman, (2015) Yield and Quality of Forage Oat (Avena sativa L.) Cultivars as Affected by Seed Inoculation with Nitrogenous Strains. American Journal of Plant Sciences,06,3251-3259. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2015.619316