article · Plants
Water scarcity poses a major obstacle to sustainable agriculture, especially in arid and semiarid regions where deficit irrigation is increasingly used. This research evaluated whether biochar soil amendments and foliar sprays of potassium humate, used separately or together, could alleviate the negative impacts of water stress on onion crops. Across two consecutive field seasons, deficit irrigation suppressed plant growth and resilience. However, applying biochar and potassium humate effectively countered these stresses. The combined treatment improved plant water relations, increased photosynthetic pigments, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities, and strengthened biochemical responses. Consequently, this integrated approach increased overall yield characteristics and enhanced the nutritional quality of onion bulbs cultivated with reduced water supplies.
Drought and water shortages threaten food production across dry environments. Finding practical ways to produce nutritious vegetables with less water is essential for food security. Demonstrating that organic soil amendments and humate sprays can protect crop yields under deficit irrigation provides a sustainable route to maintaining agricultural output whilst conserving critical freshwater supplies.
This research provides applied and tested evidence from two seasons of field trials, positioning the intervention close to on-farm adoption. The approach could enable commercial vegetable growers and farming enterprises in water-stressed regions to sustain onion yields using lower water volumes. Agricultural input suppliers could use these findings to formulate or market integrated biochar and potassium humate treatment packages specifically tailored for crops grown under deficit irrigation regimes.
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Water scarcity, due to physical shortage or inadequate access, is a major global challenge that severely affects agricultural productivity and sustainability. Deficit irrigation is a promising strategy to overcome water scarcity, particularly in arid and semiarid regions with limited freshwater resources. However, precise application of deficit irrigation requires a better understanding of the plant response to water/drought stress. In the current study, we investigated the potential impacts of biochar-based soil amendment and foliar potassium-humate application (separately or their combination) on the growth, productivity, and nutritional value of onion (<i>Allium cepa</i> L.) under deficient irrigation conditions in two separate field trials during the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons. Our findings showed that deficit irrigation negatively affected onion resilience to drought stress. However, these harmful effects were diminished after soil amendment using biochar, K-humate foliar application, or their combination. Briefly, integrated biochar and K-humate application increased onion growth, boosted the content of the photosynthetic pigments, enhanced the water relations, and increased the yield traits of deficient irrigation onion plants. Moreover, it improved the biochemical response, enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes, and enriched the nutrient value of deficiently irrigated onion plants. Collectively, these findings highlight the potential utilization of biochar and K-humate as sustainable eco-friendly strategies to improve onion resilience to deficit irrigation.
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DOI: 10.3390/plants10122598
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