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Although arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are known to promote growth and yield of agricultural crops, inoculation methods for effective scaling up from greenhouse to the field are still underexplored. The application of single or mixed beneficial AM fungal isolates is hindered by the lack of experimental reproducibility of findings at different scales and the cost-effectivity of inoculation methods. Seed coating has been considered a feasible delivery system of AM fungal inocula for agricultural crops. In this study, the impact of single and multiple AM fungal isolates applied via seed coating on chickpea productivity was evaluated under greenhouse and field conditions. Overall, plants inoculated with multiple AM fungal isolates had better performance than those inoculated with single AM isolate under greenhouse and field conditions. While plants in greenhouse displayed higher shoot dry weight (14%) and seed individual weight (21%), in field, inoculation with multiple AM isolates increased pod (160%), and seed (148%) numbers, and grain yield (140%). Under field conditions, mycorrhizal root colonization was significantly higher in chickpea plants inoculated with multiple AM fungal isolates compared to other treatments. These findings highlight the potential of field-inoculation with multiple AM fungal isolates via seed coating as a sustainable agricultural practice for chickpea production.

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The objective of this study was to determine the energy use and input costs for irrigation in field crop production of winter wheat, maize, sugar beet, dry bean, potato, and carrot. For this purpose, irrigation data for the production of six field crops were collected through a survey of 72 farms. According to the results, the carrot crop used the highest amount of energy for irrigation with a value of 47,655 MJ/ha, and winter wheat used the least at 13,167 MJ/ha. Energy efficiency of irrigation for carrot, sugar beet, dry bean, potato, maize, and winter wheat were estimated to be 3.19, 6.04, 1.11, 2.69, 6.41, and 3.95, respectively. The most important cost item for irrigation was the diesel energy cost. The farms that used electricity for irrigation were more successful in terms of economic performance. It was concluded that excess water and energy use for the irrigation process should be reduced to increase the efficiency of energy use for the production of field crops in arid and semi-arid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are known to promote growth and yield of agricultural crops, inoculation methods for effective scaling up from greenhouse to the field are still underexplored. The application of single or mixed beneficial AM fungal isolates is hindered by the lack of experimental reproducibility of findings at different scales and the cost-effectivity of inoculation methods. Seed coating has been considered a feasible delivery system of AM fungal inocula for agricultural crops. In this study, the impact of single and multiple AM fungal isolates applied via seed coating on chickpea productivity was evaluated under greenhouse and field conditions. Overall, plants inoculated with multiple AM fungal isolates had better performance than those inoculated with single AM isolate under greenhouse and field conditions. While plants in greenhouse displayed higher shoot dry weight (14%) and seed individual weight (21%), in field, inoculation with multiple AM isolates increased pod (160%), and seed (148%) numbers, and grain yield (140%). Under field conditions, mycorrhizal root colonization was significantly higher in chickpea plants inoculated with multiple AM fungal isolates compared to other treatments. These findings highlight the potential of field-inoculation with multiple AM fungal isolates via seed coating as a sustainable agricultural practice for chickpea production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]