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Sustainability perspectives of vigna unguiculata L. Walp. cultivation under no tillage and water stress conditions
- Source :
- Plants, Volume 9, Issue 1, Plants, Vol 9, Iss 1, p 48 (2019)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Nowadays, agriculture is facing the great challenge of climate change which puts the productivity of the crops in peril due to unpredictable rain patterns and water shortages, especially in the developing world. Besides productivity, nutritional values of the yields of these crops may also be affected, especially under low mechanization and the low water availability conditions of the developing world. Conservation agriculture (CA) is a topic of emerging interest due to the provision of adequate yields and reduced environmental impact, such as greenhouse gas emissions, by being based on three main principles: minimum soil disturbance (reduced or no tillage), cover crop maintenance, and crop rotation. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of CA management on the growth performance and the nutritional profile of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp), a pulse of African origin, commonly known as black eye bean under field conditions. A field experiment was designed to assess the effect of conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) combined with the usage of a set of cover crops, coupled to normal and deficient water regimes. Cowpea was revealed to be able to grow and yield comparably at each level of the treatment tested, with a better ability to face water exhaustion under CA management. After a faster initial growth phase in CT plots, the level of adaptability of this legume to NT was such that growth performances improved significantly with respect to CT plots. The flowering rate was higher and earlier in CT conditions, while in NT it was slower but longer-lasting. The leafy photosynthetic rate and the nutritional profile of beans were slightly influenced by tillage management: only total starch content was negatively affected in NT and watered plots while proteins and aminoacids did not show any significant variation. Furthermore, significantly higher carbon and nitrogen concentration occurred in NT soils especially at the topmost (0&ndash<br />5 cm) soil horizon. These findings confirm the capability of CA to enrich soil superficial horizons and highlight that cowpea is a suitable crop to be grown under sustainable CA management. This practice could be pivotal to preserve soils and to save agronomical costs without losing a panel of nutrients that are important to the human diet. Due to its great protein and aminoacidic composition, V. unguiculata is a good candidate for further cultivation in regions of the word facing deficiencies in the intake of such nutrients, such as the Mediterranean basins and Sub-Saharan countries.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Drought stress
Conservation agriculture
No-tillage
Plant Science
01 natural sciences
Article
Nutrient
Climate change
Cover crop
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Conventional tillage
Ecology
business.industry
Botany
food and beverages
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
Crop rotation
Tillage
Agronomy
Agriculture
QK1-989
Soil water
Settore AGR/16 - MICROBIOLOGIA AGRARIA
040103 agronomy & agriculture
0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
Environmental science
Drought stre
business
Settore AGR/02 - AGRONOMIA E COLTIVAZIONI ERBACEE
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Plants, Volume 9, Issue 1, Plants, Vol 9, Iss 1, p 48 (2019)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a7791ec07bb7a20481bc90db7b12d4f8