TY - JOUR
T1 - Field evaluation of mixed-seedlings with rice to alleviate flood stress for semi-arid cereals
AU - Awala, Simon K.
AU - Yamane, Koji
AU - Izumi, Yasuhiro
AU - Fujioka, Yuichiro
AU - Watanabe, Yoshinori
AU - Wada, Kaede C.
AU - Kawato, Yoshimasa
AU - Mwandemele, Osmund D.
AU - Iijima, Morio
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank M. Sheepo (Univ. Namibia), M. Masumoto, S. Watanabe and K. Tsuchiya (Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers [JOCV]) for their contribution during the course of the project. We also thank the members of the projects entitled ‘Flood- and Drought-adaptive Cropping Systems to Conserve Water Environments in Semi-arid Regions’ by the framework of the ‘Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS)’ funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). We are particularly grateful to the project members, T. Hiyama (Nagoya University) and J. Kambatuku (Univ. Namibia), for providing the meteorological data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Flash floods, erratically striking semi-arid regions, often cause field flooding and soil anoxia, resulting in crop losses on food staples, typically pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench). Recent glasshouse studies have indicated that rice (Oryza spp.) can enhance flood stress tolerance of co-growing dryland cereals by modifying their rhizosphere microenvironments via the oxygen released from its roots into the aqueous rhizosphere. We tested whether this phenomenon would be expressed under field flood conditions. The effects of mix-planting of pearl millet and sorghum with rice on their survival, growth and grain yields were evaluated under controlled field flooding in semi-arid Namibia during 2014/2015–2015/2016. Single-stand and mixed plant treatments were subjected to 11–22 day flood stress at the vegetative growth stage. Mixed planting increased plant survival rates in both pearl millet and sorghum. Grain yields of pearl millet and sorghum were reduced by flooding, in both the single-stand and mixed plant treatments, relative to the non-flooded upland yields, but the reduction was lower in the mixed plant treatments. In contrast, flooding increased rice yields. Both pearl millet–rice and sorghum–rice mixtures demonstrated higher land equivalent ratios, indicating a mixed planting advantage under flood conditions. These results indicate that mix-planting pearl millet and sorghum with rice could alleviate flood stress on dryland cereals. The results also suggest that with this cropping technique, rice could compensate for the dryland cereal yield losses due to field flooding.
AB - Flash floods, erratically striking semi-arid regions, often cause field flooding and soil anoxia, resulting in crop losses on food staples, typically pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench). Recent glasshouse studies have indicated that rice (Oryza spp.) can enhance flood stress tolerance of co-growing dryland cereals by modifying their rhizosphere microenvironments via the oxygen released from its roots into the aqueous rhizosphere. We tested whether this phenomenon would be expressed under field flood conditions. The effects of mix-planting of pearl millet and sorghum with rice on their survival, growth and grain yields were evaluated under controlled field flooding in semi-arid Namibia during 2014/2015–2015/2016. Single-stand and mixed plant treatments were subjected to 11–22 day flood stress at the vegetative growth stage. Mixed planting increased plant survival rates in both pearl millet and sorghum. Grain yields of pearl millet and sorghum were reduced by flooding, in both the single-stand and mixed plant treatments, relative to the non-flooded upland yields, but the reduction was lower in the mixed plant treatments. In contrast, flooding increased rice yields. Both pearl millet–rice and sorghum–rice mixtures demonstrated higher land equivalent ratios, indicating a mixed planting advantage under flood conditions. These results indicate that mix-planting pearl millet and sorghum with rice could alleviate flood stress on dryland cereals. The results also suggest that with this cropping technique, rice could compensate for the dryland cereal yield losses due to field flooding.
KW - Intercropping
KW - Pearl millet
KW - Radial oxygen loss
KW - Rice
KW - Soil flooding
KW - Sorghum
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U2 - 10.1016/j.eja.2016.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.eja.2016.07.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84979650045
VL - 80
SP - 105
EP - 112
JO - European Journal of Agronomy
JF - European Journal of Agronomy
SN - 1161-0301
ER -