ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Growth, Yield and Nutritional Performance
of Sweet Sorghum and Legumes in Sole
and Intercropping Influenced by Type of Legume,
Nitrogen Level and Air Quality
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1
Department of Agriculture & Food Technology, Karakoram International University, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
2
Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan
3
Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Pakistan
4
Department of Agronomy, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Murree Road Rawalpindi, Pakistan
5
Agriculture Systems and Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development,
Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand
Submission date: 2018-12-15
Final revision date: 2019-02-09
Acceptance date: 2019-02-17
Online publication date: 2019-09-10
Publication date: 2019-12-09
Corresponding author
Muhammad Arshad
Department of Agriculture & Food Technology, Karakoram International University, University Road, 15100, Gilgit, Pakistan
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2020;29(1):533-543
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ABSTRACT
Sweet sorghum is a drought-tolerant cereal widely grown as pure stand in water-scarce areas. In
the context of ongoing climate change, some agronomic adjustments are required for sustainable food
production. Intercropping sweet sorghum with mungbean and soybean was assessed under three N
levels (30, 60, 120 kg ha-1) and two types of air quality environments (charcoal filtered air and ambient
air). Grain yield of sweet sorghum was significantly (P≤0.001) reduced in intercropping with mungbean
(4.5 t ha-1), but remained on par (P>0.05) between sole cropping (5.1 t ha-1) and intercropping
with soybean (5.1 t ha-1). Nitrogen application at 60 kg ha-1 optimized the grain yield, LER (1.8-1.9)
and nutritional outputs of carbohydrate, protein, fat, and energy in intercropping (4.7 t, 1.0 t, 0.2 t, and
102.5 MJ ha-1, respectively) compared to that in sole cropping of sweet sorghum (3.6 t, 0.5 t, 0.1 t, and
74.6 MJ ha-1, respectively). Charcoal-filtered air with reduced air pollutants of O3, NO2 and SO2
significantly (P≤0.05) improved the growth and seed yield of intercropped mungbean (2.1 tha-1) and
soybean (1.8 tha-1), and overall land productivity compared to ambient air (1.7 and 1.2 t ha-1, respectively).