Combined Use of Sewage Sludge and Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobia Improves Germination, Biochemical Response and Yield of Ridge Gourd ( Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.) under Field Conditions

Vinod Kumar, Ebrahem M. Eid, Dhafer A. Al-Bakre, Samy M. Abdallah, Ivan Širić, Željko Andabaka, Pankaj Kumar, Madhumita Goala, Bashir Adelodun, Jogendra Singh, Sonika Kumari, Archana Bachheti, Ashish Kumar Arya and Kyung-Sook Choi
Additional contact information
Vinod Kumar: Agroecology and Pollution Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar 249404, Uttarakhand, India
Ebrahem M. Eid: Biology Department, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61321, Saudi Arabia
Dhafer A. Al-Bakre: Biology Department, College of Science, Tabuk University, Tabuk 47512, Saudi Arabia
Samy M. Abdallah: Biology Department, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61321, Saudi Arabia
Ivan Širić: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetosimunska 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Željko Andabaka: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetosimunska 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Pankaj Kumar: Agroecology and Pollution Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar 249404, Uttarakhand, India
Madhumita Goala: Nehru College, Pailapool, Affiliated Assam University, Cachar, Silchar 788098, Assam, India
Bashir Adelodun: Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
Jogendra Singh: Agroecology and Pollution Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar 249404, Uttarakhand, India
Sonika Kumari: Agroecology and Pollution Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology and Environmental Science, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar 249404, Uttarakhand, India
Archana Bachheti: Department of Environmental Science, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun 248002, Uttarakhand, India
Ashish Kumar Arya: Department of Environmental Science, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun 248002, Uttarakhand, India
Kyung-Sook Choi: Department of Agricultural Civil Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-16

Abstract: This research investigated the combined use of sewage sludge (SS) and plant growth-promoting rhizobia (PGPR) for Ridge gourd ( Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.) cultivated under field conditions. The different treatments of SS and PGPR such as 0% (soil as control), 5% SS, 5% SS + PGPR, 10% SS, and 10% SS + PGPR were applied to assess their impacts on seedling growth, biochemical response, and yield performance of Ridge gourd. The results showed that the highest seedling emergence (92.3 ± 2.1%), fresh biomass (9.6 ± 0.3 g), growth rate (1.4 ± 0.1 g/day), seedling length (15.5 ± 0.3 cm), root length (10.4 ± 0.3 cm), total chlorophyll (3.2 ± 0.1 mg/g), crop yield (13.8 ± 0.1 kg/plant), and average crop yield per harvest (2.8 ± 0.1 kg/plant) were observed in 10% SS + PGPR treatment. The enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD; µg/g) and catalase (CAT: µg/g) were significantly lowered after PGPR inoculation in higher SS treatments. The results of principal component (PC) and Euclidian clustered distance analyses showed a positive influence of SS dose on soil nutrient availability and Ridge gourd’s growth, biochemical responses, and yield performance. Moreover, the elemental analysis showed that the bioaccumulation factor (BAF < 0.90) and health risk index (HRI < 0.40) of selected metal elements (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn) were within the permissible limits, indicating consumption of Ridge gourd fruits was safe. The outcomes of this study suggest the potential use of SS and PGPR for improved Ridge gourd production and contribution towards sustainable development goal (SDG) 12 on responsible consumption and production of vegetable crops.

Keywords: bioaccumulation; health risk; Luffa acutangula; metal elements; sewage sludge; target hazard quotient (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/2/173/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/2/173/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:173-:d:734375

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().