No abstract

The reduction of herbicide use and herbicide-resistant weeds through allelopathy can be a sustainable strategy to combat the concerns of environmental degradation. Allelopathic crop residues carry great potential both as weed suppressers and soil quality enhancers. The influence of sorghum crop residues and water extracts on the weed population, soil enzyme activities, the microbial community, and mung bean crop productivity was investigated in a two-year experiment at the Student Research Farm, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The experimental treatments comprised two levels of sorghum water extract (10 and 20 L ha−1) and two residue application rates (4 and 6 t ha−1), and no sorghum water extract and residues were used as the control. The results indicated that the incorporation of sorghum water extract and residue resulted in significant changes in weed dynamics and the soil quality indices. Significant reduction in weed density (62%) and in the dry weight of weeds (65%) was observed in T5. After the harvest, better soil quality indices in terms of the microbial population (72–90%) and microbial activity (32–50%) were observed in the rhizosphere (0–15 cm) by the same treatment. After cropping, improved soil properties in terms of available potassium, available phosphorus soil organic matter, and total nitrogen were higher after the treatment of residue was incorporated, i.e., 52–65%, 29–45%, 62–84%, and 59–91%, respectively. In the case of soil enzymes, alkaline phosphatase and dehydrogenase levels in the soil were 35–41% and 52–77% higher, respectively. However, residue incorporation at 6 t ha−1 had the greatest effect in improving the soil quality indices, mung bean productivity, and reduction of weed density. In conclusion, the incorporation of 6 t ha−1 sorghum residues may be opted to improve soil quality indices, suppress weeds, harvest a better seed yield (37%), and achieve higher profitability (306 $ ha−1) by weed suppression, yield, and rhizospheric properties of spring-planted mung beans. This strategy can provide a probable substitute for instigating sustainable weed control and significant improvement of soil properties in the mung bean crop, which can be a part of eco-friendly and sustainable agriculture.

The agriculture sector of Pakistan mainly depends on freshwater from groundwater resources. Deterioration of these resources adversely affected crop yields due to climate change and human activities. A comprehensive study was conducted to evaluate the groundwater quality of varying boring depths and the possible effects on the crop yield of cotton in Tehsil Fort Abbas, District Bahawalnagar, Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 347 samples were collected from the investigated areas. Results revealed that 86% of samples were declared unfit for irrigation purposes, 6% of samples were fit, and 8% of samples were marginally fit for irrigation. The ranges for the electrical conductivity (EC), sodium absorption ratio (SAR), and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) were 0.61–10.49 dS m−1, 0.65 to 5.44 meq L−1, and 0.02 to 5.44 meq L−1, respectively. Regarding the EC of water samples, the southwestern side of the study area where the lower values were observed was in an acceptable range in terms of water quality. Differential response to metal contamination was observed in the study area. Lower contamination of metals was observed in the water samples collected from some regions on the eastern and western sides of the study area. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that by increasing the depth of the bore, the value of EC was also increased. Similarly, for the cotton lint yield maximum yield (1040 kg acre−1) was observed in the sampling point located in the southwestern part of the study area due to better quality of irrigation water, while the minimum cotton lint yield (520 kg acre−1) was noticed in sampling point located in the western side of the study area. Overall groundwater quality of Tehsil Fort Abbas was unfit for irrigation due to the high EC values and metal concentrations. The yield showed a negative correlation among all parameters of water. It was suggested that using the recommended dose of gypsum powder/stone and dilution of groundwater with canal water reduced the hazards of anions and cations of groundwater for the accumulation of salts in crops.

The Acknowledgements and Funding sections were incorrectly published in the original article and it has been corrected as follows. The original article has been updated.