To evaluate the effect of planting distance on yield and agro-morphological characteristics of Bara variety (local variety of rice), a field experiment was carried out at the experimental station of the Agricultural Faculty of Kunduz University in 2016. Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) with four replications was used in the experiment. Transplanting distances with four levels viz. 10x10 cm, 15x15 cm, 20x20 cm, and 25 x 25 cm were used as treatment. Results showed that planting distance had significant effects on tillers number, leaf color, non-filled grain, total grain, and 1000 grains weight. In contrary, no significant effects on plant height, panicle length, number of filled grain per panicle and grain yield were observed between spacing. The spacing of 25 x 25 cm had produced the highest performance for most of the agro-morphological traits evaluated. Grain yield was found similar in all spacing but other yield components like total number of tillers (16.63) and total grain per panicle (119.43) were found statistically superior in 25 x 25 cm planting distance. Overall, the results of this study revealed that the planting distance of 25 x 25 cm seemed to be the best as requires lower seed and fertilizer (lower cost) and can, therefore, be suggested to the farmers for a better valorization of Bara variety in northeastern Afghanistan. Similar investigations are strongly recommended in other agro-ecological zones of the country where Bara variety is largely grown to confirm these findings.
Composting chicken manure causes negative impacts on environmental ecosystem by increasing ammonia (NH 3 ) emissions. Split addition of maize straw-derived biochar (Bi) during composting of chicken manure may promote the composting process, increase the quality of produced compost and reduce NH 3 volatilization. To build composting piles, fresh chicken manure and maize straw were mixed (2:1 w/w). Biochar (10% w/w) was applied to the compost piles in different addition modes: one-time applied biochar (OTABi), 10% at the beginning of the trial, and split-applied biochar (SABi), 2.5% at 0, 3, 7 and 15 days of the composting. In addition to the control (without biochar) treatment, measurements of NH 3 emissions were performed in a bench-scale composting experiment. To evaluate the phytotoxicity and maturity of the compost, germination tests were performed in Petri dishes. Compared with the control and OTABi treatments, SABi had a great positive effect (by 40% and 33%) on the final general characteristics of the compost and reduced the cumulative NH 3 emissions. Although OTABi treatment had faster degradation during composting, it did not enhance humification. In the mature compost, the humic substances of SABi treatment were 17% and 40% higher than control and OTABi treatments. In addition, in SABi, the values of humic acid carbon (HAC) and humification index (HI) were significantly higher than in other treatments. By the end of composting, both biochar application modes exhibited low water-extractable organic carbon and high seed germination index compared with the control treatment. This study suggests that during chicken manure composting split application of biochar is a crucial practice for reducing N loss, mitigating NH 3 emissions and enhancing humification.
Increasing nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency has become an environmental and economic demand in order to minimize losses of nitrogen and maximize the output from nitrogen added. The application of organic amendments with N fertilizers could be proposed as an important economic and environmental practice for improving N fertilizer use. A two-year field experiment was carried out using the 15N tracer technique to study the impact of corn straw and woody peat application on uptake and utilization of N fertilizer by maize plant. Three treatments were set up: CK (15N labeled urea alone), CS (15N labeled urea + crushed corn straw) and WP (15N labeled urea+ crushed woody peat). The results showed that, as compared to CK, both straw and peat treatments led to (i) an increase in yield of maize, 15N urea utilization rate, and residual 15N urea remained in soil by 11.20% and 19.47%, 18.62% and 58.99%, 41.77% and 59.45%, respectively, but (ii) a decrease in the total loss rate by 6.21% and 16.83% (p < 0.05), respectively over the two seasons. Moreover, the significantly highest effect was recorded with woody peat application rather than that with corn straw. Our study suggests that corn straw and woody peat can be used as organic fertilizers to increase maize yields, promote nitrogen fertilizer balance sheet, reduce the leaching of N fertilizer into the subsurface soil layer, and facilitate the further absorption and utilization of soil residual nitrogen. Therefore, the application of humified organic material play a crucial role in N utilization efficiency enhancement.
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