Biological nitrogen fixation by mucuna bracteata under oil palm filed environments

by mpob_admin

In recent years, there has been a tremendous renewal of interest in incorporating the N-fixing creeping legume, Mucuna bracteata, in the oil palm production system. Although a considerable amount of work has been done on M. bracteata, the N-fixing capacity of this legume has not been fully studied. Hence, an experiment using the 15N isotopic dilution technique was laid out to quantify the N fixed by M. bracteata in a 3-year-old oil palm plantation where P. conjucatum and mixed broad-leaf weeds were used as non-N-fixing reference plants. The results revealed that M. bracteata planted on Jawa Series soil derived 67%-84% of its N from N-fixation. The finding confirmed that M. Bracteata has the potential to contribute to the N pool of the oil palm cropping system, and has potential to be used as a green manure or even as an alternative N source to inorganic N. The high percentage of N fixed by M. bracteata also indicates that competition for applied N and soil N between M. bracteata and oil palm, if any, would be insignificant.

 
Penggunaan kekacang penutup bumi, M. Bracteata dalam sistem pengeluaran sawit semakin mendapat perhatian kebelakangan ini. Walaupun banyak penyelidikan telah dijalankan ke atas M. bracteata, keupayaan untuk mengikat N daripada atmosfera belum dikaji dengan sepenuhnya. Sehubungan ini, satu kajian telah dijalankan untuk mengkaji keupayaan pengikatan N oleh M. bracteata di ladang sawit yang berumur tiga tahun. Dalam kajian ini, kaedah 15N isotopi digunakan untuk mengukur jumlah N yang diikat oleh M. bracteata yang ditanam di celah-celah barisan sawit, di mana P. conjucatum dan campuran rumpai berdaun lebar digunakan sebagai tumbuhan rujukan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan M. bracteata yang ditanam di atas tanah siri Jawa berupaya mengikat 67%-84% keperluan N daripada atmosfera.

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