Thesis (M.Sc. (Agriculture Agronomy)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Pigeonpea (cajanus cajan [L] Millsp.) is a legume crop which is grown mainly in the
Semi-Arid Tropical (SAT) regions and it is mostly cultivated for its edible seeds. It has
been identified as a possible substitute crop which can be bought by all people and it
can also provide an acceptable amount of nutrition and protein in particular as it is not
an expensive source of protein when compared to animal protein. Its ability to tolerate
drought and fix atmospheric nitrogen makes it suitable for marginal areas with low
rainfall and poor fertility. However, it remains one of the underutilized crops due to
limited research on the crop’s diversification and adaptation. Smallholder farmers in
the Limpopo Province cultivate landraces pigeonpea varieties that are characterized
by late maturity, low grain yield and are sensitive to photoperiod and this makes it
difficult for the cultivars to flower early and produce reasonable yield. The objectives
of the study were to evaluate the nitrogen fixation, yield and yield components of exotic
elite pigeonpea genotypes. The experiment was conducted at the University of
Limpopo Experimental farm (Syferkuil) in Mankweng during the 2017/18 growing
seasons. The trial was carried out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD)
consisting of three replications. A total of 18 elite pigeonpea breeding lines obtained
from ICRISAT in Kenya were planted at an inter-row and intra-row spacing of 1m and
0.5m respectively, in a row of 5m length with an alley way of 2m between the blocks.
The standard management practices for pigeonpea were used for weed and insect
control. The agronomic data collected included the number of days to first and 50%
flowering, the number of days to 90% maturity, canopy width (m), plant height (m),
peduncle length (m), number of primary branches, number of pods per plant, pod
length (cm), hundred seed weight (g), calcium content, sodium content, magnesium
content, phosphorus content, potassium content, iron content, zinc content, proportion
of legume N derived from the fixation of atmospheric N2 (%Ndfa), amount of nitrogen
fixed and the grain yield (kg.ha-1
). The generated data was subjected to an analysis of
variance using the Statistix 10.0 software. The Least Significance Difference (LSD)
was used to separate the means that showed significant differences at an alpha level
of 0.05. The results revealed significant differences in nearly all the pigeonpea
variables (pod length, number of seed per pod, nutrient elements and the number of
primary branches). Across genotypes, the number of days to 50% flowering ranged
from 95 to 130 days, while the number of days to 90% maturity ranged from 172 to
220 days, with variety ICEAP 01154-2 being the earliest to flower and mature. Tall
plants were observed by variety ICEAP 01541 (2.01m) followed by ICEAP 00902
(1.99m) and ICEAP 00850 (1.90m). Breeding line ICEAP 00673-1 recorded long
peduncles with a mean of 0.94m. The number of pods per plant had a range between
56 and 482, while the pod length varied from 2.03 to 8.82cm. Variety ICEAP 00673-1
exhibited the highest number of pods per plant and with longest pods. The 100 seed
weight varied from 9.43 to 16.97g among the genotypes. The higher calcium amount
was observed in verities ICEAP 00979-1 with an average of 556 mg/L and the highest
iron content was observed in ICEAP 01172-2 (14 mg/L). The potassium content
ranged between 24 mg/L to 110 mg/L, with the variety ICEAP 00540 having the highest
and the variety ICEAP 00850 having the lowest content. The sodium content ranged
from 15 to 85.1 mg/L, with the variety ICEAP 01154-2 being the highest and the variety
ICEAP 01147-1 having the lowest sodium content. The highest magnesium content
was observed in ICEAP 00673-1 (141 mg/L). The phosphorus content ranged from
24.5 to 3.77 mg/L and the highest zinc content was observed in ICEAP 01541 and in
ICEAP 00979-1 that had an average of 2.36 and 2.26 mg/L, respectively. The amount
of nitrogen fixed from all the varieties ranged from 73.547 to 154.254 kg.ha-1
. The grain
yield among the genotypes ranged from 89.24 to 785.29 kg.ha-1
. The top yielding
varieties were ICEAP 01159 and ICEAP 00557 with grain yields of 785.29 and 661.51
kg.ha-1
. ICEAP 01159 and ICEAP 00557 are the varieties that produced the highest
grain yields and they are recommended for cultivation and breeding purposes. / NRF (National Research Foundation)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/3461 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Matlala, Mankgere Virginia |
| Contributors | Asiwe, J. N. A. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xi, 82 leaves |
| Relation |
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