International Journal of Plant Production 

About: International Journal of Plant Production is an academic journal published by Springer Nature. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Irrigation & Agronomy. It has an ISSN identifier of 1735-6814. Over the lifetime, 636 publications have been published receiving 9377 citations. The journal is also known as: IJPP.

Characterization of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria associated with chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract: Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are known to influence plant growth by various direct or indirect mechanisms. In search of efficient PGPR strains with multiple activities, a total of 150 bacterial isolates belonging to Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Azotobacter and Rhizobium were isolated from different rhizospheric soil of chick pea in the vicinity of Allahabad. These test isolates were biochemically characterized and screened in vitro for their plant growth promoting traits like production of indoleacetic acid (IAA), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), siderophore and catalase. All the isolates of Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Azotobacter produced IAA, whereas only 85.7% of Rhizobium was able to produce IAA. Production of ammonia was commonly detected in the isolates of Bacillus (95.0%) followed by Pseudomonas (94.2%), Rhizobium (74.2%) and Azotobacter (45.0%). All test isolates were positive for catalase but none of the isolates produced HCN. On the basis of multiple plant growth promoting activities, 20 bacterial isolates of each genus, in total 80 isolates, were evaluated for their heavy metal tolerance. Among these isolates, Bacillus spp. were tolerant to all the heavy metals (400 µg ml-1), whereas Pseudomonas spp. were tolerant to Hg (100 µg ml-1), Co (100 µg ml-1), Cd (200 µg ml-1), Cr (100 µg ml-1), Cu (200 µg ml-1), Pb (400 µg ml-1), Zn (200 µg ml-1). Tolerance to heavy metals was observed less frequently in Azotobacter spp. and Rhizobium spp. The isolates could exhibit more than two or three PGP traits, which may promote plant growth directly or indirectly or synergistically. Further, rhizobacteria tolerant to multiple heavy metals exhibited a couple of PGP activities.

Heavy metal toxicity: effect on plant growth, biochemical parameters and metal accumulation by Brassica juncea L.

Abstract: Plant growth, pigment concentration, biochemical parameters and uptake of heavy metals were determined for Brassica juncea L. in response to cadmium and lead stress. The plant exhibited a decline in growth, chlorophyll content and carotenoids with Cd and Pb but Cd was found to be more detrimental than Pb treatment in B. juncea. The protein content was decreased by Cd (900 μM) to 95% and 44% by Pb (1500 μM) at the flowering stage. Proline showed increase at lower concentrations of Cd and Pb but at higher concentrations it showed decrease. More accumulation of Cd and Pb was observed in roots than shoots in B. juncea. Cd was found to be more accumulated than Pb but higher concentrations of Pb hampers the Cd absorption.

A review on partial root-zone drying irrigation

Abstract: Available fresh water resources are subjected to an ever-increasing pressure due to extensive agricultural water demand for irrigated lands. A long-term perspective in shortage of fresh water resources, especially in arid and semi-arid area, highlights an urgent solution for innovative irrigation strategy and agricultural water management. This paper is a review on the wide applications of the partial root-zone drying irrigation (PRD) on diverse plant species. The PRD irrigation is a novel improvement of deficit irrigation in which half of the root zone is irrigated alternatively in scheduled irrigation events. In the last decade, scientists across the world, especially from arid to semi-arid countries, have extensively evaluated this irrigation as a water-saving irrigation strategy on agronomic and horticultural plants. This review paper focuses on the physiological and morphological aspects of PRD on plants and its ultimate impact on yield and water productivity. Overall, under limited water resources where water is precious, PRD is a viable irrigation option to increase water productivity while margining the yield, rather than only increasing the economic yield without concerning the value of water in limited water environments.

Efficiency of screening techniques for evaluating durum wheat genotypes under mild drought conditions

Abstract: The main objective of this research was to evaluate fifteen durum wheat (Triticum durum) genotypes selected from joint project of Iran/ICARDA for drought tolerance using several indices. The trials were conducted under moderate levels of drought stress for three cropping seasons (20042006) in four locations in the highlands western of Iran. The combined ANOVA for grain yield over years and locations indicated significant differences among main effects (genotypes, years, locations) and their interactions. Principal component (PC) analysis based on the Spearman’s rank correlation matrix revealed that the screening methods were significantly inter-correlated with each other and can be classified into three groups; The first group included stress susceptible index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL) and yield stability index (YSI) where had significantly negative correlation with mean grain yield under supplemental irrigation condition and were able to identify drought resistant genotypes with low yielding performance. The second group reflects the drought tolerance indices including stress tolerance index (STI), geometric mean productivity (GMP), mean productivity (MP) and superiority index (Pi) which were appear to identify the high yielding semi-dwarf genotypes (G6, G4 and G3) with high drought tolerance. The parameters of relative adaptability to drought (bN), regression intercept (a) and regression coefficient (b) are in third group which were able to distinguish the genotypes G6, G5 and G10 with high adaptability and relative drought resistant. The final conclusion of this study is to reveal that not only genotypes but also screening methods can be classified into distinct groups considering different concepts of drought tolerance, resistance and susceptibility under mild drought stress.

Impact of vermicompost and composted farmyard manure on growth and yield of garlic (Allium stivum L.) field crop

Abstract: The efforts were made to study the impact of vermicomposted and composted farmyard manure (FYM) along with some combination of NPK fertilizers, on field crop of garlic (Allium stivum L.). A total of six experimental plots were prepared: T1 (recommended doze of NPK), T2 (vermicompost @ 15t/ha), T3 (20 t/ha vermicompost), T4 (15t/ha vermicompost + 50 % NPK), T5 (15t/ha farmyard manure), and T6 (farmyard manure 15t/ha + 100% recommended NPK) to test the plant production patterns, under field conditions. The maximum range of some plant parameters i.e. root length, shoot length, leaf length, fruit weight, number of cloves in garlic fruit and number of leaves per plant was in the T4 treatment plot. Also, the average fruit weight was approximately 26.4% greater in T4 than recommended NPK treatment plot (T1). The vermicomposted FYM showed a comparatively better result of plant production than composted manure. The plant growth results indicate the presence of some growth-promoting substances in worm-processed material (vermicompost). The vermicomposted FYM also contained a considerable amount of some essential plant micronutrients e.g. Cu (0.973 mg kg -1 ), Fe (8.68 mg kg -1 ), Mn (13.64 mg kg -1 ) and Zn (16.91 g kg -1 ) that might be responsible for better plant growth and productivity. This study suggests that vermicomposted manures may be a potential source of plant nutrients for sustainable crop production.