Assessing Yield Response and Relationship of Soil Boron Fractions with Its Accumulation in Sorghum and Cowpea under Boron Fertilization in Different Soil Series

Muhammad Babar Javed, Zaffar Malik, Muhammad Kamran, Ghulam Hassan Abbasi, Asma Majeed, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Adnan Bukhari, Adnan Mustafa, Sunny Ahmar, Freddy Mora-Poblete, Muhammad Rafay and Syed Asad Hussain Bukhari
Additional contact information
Muhammad Babar Javed: Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Zaffar Malik: Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Muhammad Kamran: CAS Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Ghulam Hassan Abbasi: Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Asma Majeed: Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Muhammad Riaz: College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Muhammad Adnan Bukhari: Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Adnan Mustafa: National Engineering Laboratory for Improving Quality of Arable Land, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Sunny Ahmar: Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Talca, 2 Norte 685, Talca 3460000, Chile
Freddy Mora-Poblete: Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Talca, 2 Norte 685, Talca 3460000, Chile
Muhammad Rafay: Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Syed Asad Hussain Bukhari: Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient in the growth of reproductive plant parts. Its deficiency and/or toxicity are widespread in arid and semi-arid soils with low clay contents. This study was planned to determine the response of sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L., non-leguminous crop) and cowpea ( Vigna sinensis L., leguminous crop) to boron (0, 2, 4, and 16 µg g −1 ) on four distinct soil series from Punjab, Pakistan i.e., Udic Haplustalf (Pindorian region), Typic Torrifluvent (Shahdra region), Halic Camborthid (Khurianwala region), and Udic Haplustalf (Gujranwala region). Overall, there was a significant difference ( p < 0.05) in yield between the sorghum (3.8 to 5.5 g pot −1 of 5 kg dry soil) and cowpea (0.2 to 3.2 g pot −1 of 5 kg dry soil) in response to B application. The highest yield was observed in both sorghum and cowpea either in control or at 2 µg g −1 B application in all four soils. Cowpea showed the same yield trend in all four soils (i.e., an increase in yield at 2 µg g −1 B application, followed by a significant decrease at the higher B levels). In contrast, sorghum exhibited greater variability of response on different soils; Udic Haplustalf (Pindorian region) produced the greatest yield at low levels of B application. However, Halic Camborthid produced its lowest yield at that level. Boron concentration in shoots increased with the levels of B application, particularly in sorghum. In cowpea, the plant growth was extremely retarded—and most of the plants died at higher levels of B application even if a lower concentration of B was measured within the shoot. Hot water-extractable B was the most available fraction for cowpea (R 2 = 0.96), whereas the easily exchangeable B was most available for sorghum (R 2 = 0.90). Overall, these results have implications for micronutrient uptake for both leguminous and non-leguminous crops.

Keywords: Boron; toxicity; sensitivity; soil series; sequential extraction; bioavailability; regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4192/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4192/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:8:p:4192-:d:533003

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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