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Assessment of biological Nitrogen fixing potentials of <i>Pigeonpea</i> genotypes intercropped with sorghum for soil fertility improvement in Southern Guinea savanna of Nigeria


O M Egbe

Abstract



In a 2-year field/laboratory study, the biological nitrogen fixing potentials of 14 newly introduced pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) genotypes from ICRISAT along with a local check were assessed under intercropping with sorghum (Sorghum bicolour (L.) Moench.) in Southern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria. Using sorghum as the non-fixing control and N-difference method, estimates of fixed N in pigeonpea genotypes of different maturity ratings ranged from 37.52kg/ha to 164.82kg/ha under intercropping. The average total nitrogen concentration of shoot in intercropped pigeonpea genotypes at harvest (2.83%) was higher than that for intercropped sorghum (1.83%). There were very little differences between sole cropping and intercropping in total soil N for each of the crops in the intercrop combinations in both years..

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> Agro-Science Vol. 6 (1) 2007: pp. 33-45

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eISSN: 1119-7455