Improving Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) Productivity through Adaptive Management of Water and Nitrogen

Abstract

Management of nitrogen and water plays a significant role in increasing crop productivity. A large amount of nitrogen (N) may be lost through leaching if these resources are not well managed. Wetting front detectors (WFDs) and Chameleon soil water sensors were used to adapt water and nitrogen applications with the goal of increasing millet yields, as well as nitrogen and water use efficiency. The trials were laid out as a randomized complete block design with factorial combinations of water and N, and included the following treatments: irrigation to field capacity (fortnightly and weekly), adaptive-water application based on sensor response or rainfed, and N treatments included either fixed nitrogen levels (0, 45, 90 kg N ha−1) or an adaptive-N rate, depending on N content of the soil solution extracted from WFDs. Adaptive management aims to steer water and nitrogen applications towards optimum crop requirements. Treatments that received both high water and nitrogen outperformed other treatments by 11% to 68% in terms of biomass production and 16% to 54% in grain yield, while water use efficiency and irrigation use efficiency values were also higher, ranging from 1.58 to 7.94 kg m−3 and 1.43 to 8.30 kg m−3. Results suggest that integrated adaptive water and nitrogen management should be considered to reduce high N losses and cost of crop production, without a meaningful yield penalty, relative to high production input management.

Utilization Pattern of Indigenous and Naturalized Plants among Some Selected Rural Households of North West Province, South Africa

“…In the current study, Pennisetum glaucum was one of the plants that had three use-categories, namely beverages, staple, and livestock feed. It is evident that Pennisetum glaucum is largely cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and India as grain for human consumption and forage for livestock [41]. Furthermore, in Sub-Saharan Africa, Pennisetum glaucum constitutes both a unique ecological heritage and a critical food security component among millions of small-scale farmers.…”

Evaluating pearl millet and mungbean intercropping in the semi‐arid regions of Senegal

“…Senegalese agriculture is still extensive and essentially rain‐fed (Diangar, Fofana, Diagne, Yamoah, & Dick, 2004; Fall & Lo, 2009; Gaudreau & Gibson, 2015). It is also characterized by family farms smaller than 3 ha (Willems, 2013) whose access to inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, or equipment) is limited by the low income of farmers (Barrett & Bevis, 2015), limited access to credit (Seck, 2017) but also the limited use of soil fertility improvement and management practices (Diatta et al., 2016; Settle & Garba, 2011; Tounkara et al., 2020).…”

Optimizing Management Options through Empirical Modeling to Improve Pearl Millet Production for Semi-Arid and Arid Regions of Punjab, Pakistan

“…Nitrogen is the major nutrient required to grow pearl millet. The crop shows variable phenological, growth, and yield responses to nitrogen applications [1,2]. Generally, it is considered that pearl millet is better adapted to poor soils with low nitrogen management [3].…”