The Effects of Biofertilizers on Growth, Soil Fertility, and Nutrients Uptake of Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis) under Greenhouse Conditions

Abstract

The full dependency on chemical fertilizers in oil palm plantation poses an enormous threat to the ecosystem through the degradation of soil and water quality through leaching to the groundwater and contaminating the river. A greenhouse study was conducted to test the effect of combinations of biofertilizers with chemical fertilizer focusing on the soil fertility, nutrient uptake, and the growth performance of oil palms seedlings. Soils used were histosol, spodosol, oxisol, and ultisol. The three treatments were T1: 100% chemical fertilizer (NPK 12:12:17), T2: 70% chemical fertilizer + 30% biofertilizer A (CF + BFA), and T3: 70% + 30% biofertilizer B (CF + BFB). T2 and T3, respectively increased the growth of oil palm seedlings and soil nutrient status but seedlings in oxisol and ultisol under T3 had the highest in almost all parameters due to the abundance of more efficient PGPR. The height of seedlings in ultisol under T3 was 22% and 17% more than T2 and T1 respectively, with enhanced girth size, chlorophyll content, with improved nutrient uptake by the seedlings. Histosol across all treatments has a high macronutrient content suggesting that the rate of chemical fertilizer application should be revised when planting using the particular soil. With the reduction of chemical fertilizer by 25%, the combined treatment with biofertilizers could enhance the growth of the oil palm seedlings and soil nutrient properties regardless of the soil orders.

Effects of Abiotic Stress on Soil Microbiome

“…These growthpromoting rhizobacteria can be categorized as (i) rhizhospheric, (ii) rhizoplane, (iii) endophytic and (iv) specific structural bacteria based on their connection with roots [31]. Direct mechanism of PGPR include biofertilization, root stimulation, rhizoremediation, and plant stress control, while antibiosis, induction of systemic resistance and competition for nutrients are the indirect mechanisms of PGPR [32]. It has been shown that, inoculation of beneficial bacteria are able to reduce the use of fertilizer and is a cost effective initiative in reducing the use of agrochemicals [33][34][35].…”

“…assist P solubilization and nutrient uptake in rice (Oryza sativa) and oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) [36]. Furthermore, inoculating rice with N 2 -fixing bacteria and P-solubilizing bacteria improves leaf chlorophyll content, plant nutrient absorption, and yield, and reduces N 2 and P fertilizer consumption by 50% [32]. In the absence of pathogen, rhizobacteria produce hormones such as gibberellic acid (GA), indole acetic acid (IAA), ethylene (ET) and cytokinins (CK), which helps in plant development.…”

“…Next, in the event of temporary or short-term osmotic stress, the expression of the potassium transporter such as Kup, KdpFABC and TrKA will be regulated intracellularly. Third, under prolonged osmotic pressure, the proVWX-encoded ABC transporter will allow bacteria to take in the osmoprotectants glycine betaine and proline from the environment or manufacture glycine betaine from the extracellular precursor choline [32]. In addition, to avoid cell lysis during sudden osmotic pressure, mechano-sensitive channels such as MscL and MscS that can be found in many bacteria, archaea and fungi will act like valves which open pores of the cell membrane to a larger diameter thus releasing osmotically active ions and solutes from the cytoplasm to stabilize cell [29].…”

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“…In return, the microorganisms benefit from the exudates and redox changes derived from the plants. Some of these microorganisms are biofertilizers (Ajeng et al, 2020) hence serve as biological plant growth-promoting agent, which enhances the rapid growth of plants suited for phytoremediation. Ruley et al…”

A Cotton High-Efficiency Water-Fertilizer Control System Using Wireless Sensor Network for Precision Agriculture

“…In 2011, the FAO pointed out that approximately 175.5 million tons of chemical fertilizers were used in agriculture to achieve the best crop yield [6]. A large amount of chemical fertilizers are deposited in the soil, resulting in a decline in crop yield and quality, environmental damage, and soil pollution [7,8].…”