Agronomic effectiveness of rhizobia strains on cowpea in two consecutive years

• DOI: 10.21475/ajcs.17.11.09.pne715
• Publication Date: 2017-11-11T18:27:16Z
• Authors: Gustavo Ribeiro X...; Norma Gouvêa Runj...; ; Carolina Etienne ...; ; Ana Dolores Santi...; ; Vinicius Santos G...; ; Aleksandro Ferrei...; ; Juscélia da Silva...; ; Newton Pereira St...; ; Lindete Míria Vie...; ; Jakson Leite; ; Luiz Balbino Morgado; ; Rosa Maria Cardos...
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; 15. Life on land; 12. Responsible consumption

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L Walp) is a legume of great social and economic importance in tropical regions. The plant is tolerant to soil and climatic adversity, while it has high nutritional value with high protein, minerals and vitamins contents. The cowpea legume has a very high ability to fix N2 which is important because it can reduce the costs of soluble mineral fertilizers and may contribute to sustainable agriculture, preserving the environment and natural resources. In order to observe the influence of Rhizobia the agronomic effectiveness of cowpea strains was tested in two consecutive years compared with the mineral N fertilization. The experiments were carried out in different soils of the Brazilian Northeast (semiarid and rain forest region) which measured the effectiveness of rhizobia on grain yield. The results revealed the effectiveness of strain BR 3299 in the experiment that significantly increased the grain yield (3 times when 50 kg ha-1 of N, and 2 times when 80 kg ha-1 N were used). The Rhizobia treatment promoted the grain yield (up to 1,600 kg ha-1), compared to application of 80 kg ha-1 of N. In general, all applied strains promoted the Brazilian Northeast average cowpea yield (300-400 kg ha-1).