Effects of Tillage and Bradyrhizobium Inoculation in Soybean/Maize Intercrop on Microbial Biomass and Water-Soluble Carbon in Samaru, Nigeria
Abstract
A field study was conducted during 2011 cropping season to investigate the effect of tillage practices and bradyrhizobium inoculation of soybean on microbial biomass carbon (Cmic), microbial biomass nitrogen (Nmic) and water-soluble carbon (WSC) in maize-soybean intercropping systems. Treatments comprised of two tillage practices (conventional tillage (CT) and reduced tillage (RT)) as the main plot and bradyrhizobium inoculation at four levels (inoculated soybean sole, inoculated soybean/maize intercrop, un-inoculated soybean sole and un-inoculated soybean/maize intercrop) as sub-plot. The treatments were laid in a split-plot under a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results showed that Cmic and Nmic were significantly higher under RT than CT by 31.97% and 17.28% respectively. The WSC was consistently higher in maize-soybean intercropping system with soybean inoculated with bradyrhizobium than in the un-inoculated plots. Values of WSC was 22% higher in inoculated sole soybean and 38% higher in inoculated maize-soybean intercrop than the un-inoculated sole and intercropping system respectively. Similarly, Cmic was 39.20% higher in the inoculated sole soybean than the un-inoculated sole and 24.43% higher in inoculated soybean/maize intercrop than in the un-inoculated soybean/maize intercrop. Also results of Nmic obtained under inoculated sole soybean and inoculated soybean/maize intercrop, respectively, were significantly higher than in un-inoculated sole soybean and soybean/maize intercrop by 45.13 and 56.78% rrespectively. The results demonstrated that inclusion of bradyrhizobium inoculants in soybean-maize intercropping systems under tillage practices will improve microbial biomass and water-soluble carbon, thereby enhancing the productivity of Alfisols of Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria.
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
