Growth and Yield Responses of Cassava Cultivars (Manihot esculenta Crantz) to Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation under Drought and Well-Watered Conditions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66132/ngas020301Keywords:
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi, Cassava, Drought, Well-watered, Glomus manihotisAbstract
Cassava, being a tropical crop, has the ability to withstand drought, but its net biomass production is reduced during water stress. Arbuscular mycorhizal fungi can improve plant performance, change the plant–water relationship, and increase plant productivity under drought stress. This research aimed to evaluate the effects of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation on the growth and yield of cassava cultivars under drought and well-watered conditions. Two species of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus manihotis and Rhizophagus irregularis) were used to inoculate three cassava cultivars (TME 419, IBA 30572, and Baba 70) and the third served as a control. The experiment was a 3 × 3 × 2 factorial experiment fitted into a completely randomised design, with four replicates. The results indicated that inoculation with Rhizophagus irregularis consistently led to significant increases in stem girth and plant height for IBA30572. Similarly, for TME419, inoculation with Glomus manihotis resulted in notable improvements in plant height. Rhizophagus irregularis-inoculated plants in the IBA30572 species exhibited a remarkable 73.89% increase in dried root weight under drought while Glomus manihotis-inoculated plants in the TME419 species exhibited a substantial 66.38% increase in dried root weight under drought conditions. Inoculation of IBA305072 Cassava cultivars with Rhizophagus irregularis can be recommended for improved yield in Cassava cultivation under drought condition. These results have important implications for the cultivation of Cassava in areas where water availability is limited and can help farmers to achieve higher yields and improve crop resilience.
References
Akıncı, Ş., & Lösel, D. M. (2012). Plant water-stress response mechanisms. In I. M. M. Rahman & H. Hasegawa (Eds.), Water stress. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/29578
Anjum, S. A., Ashraf, U., Tanveer, M., Khan, I., Hussain, S., Shahzad, B., Zohaib, A., Abbas, F., Saleem, M. F., Ali, I., & Wang, L. C. (2017). Drought induced changes in growth, osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant metabolism of three maize hybrids. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8, 69. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00069
Atul-Nayyar, A., Hamel, C., Hanson, K., & Germida, J. (2009). The arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis links N mineralization to plant demand. Mycorrhiza, 19(4), 239–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-008-0215-0
Burns, A., Gleadow, R., Cliff, J., Zacarias, A., & Cavagnaro, T. (2010). Cassava: The drought, war and famine crop in a changing world. Sustainability, 2(11), 3572–3607. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2113572
Chandrasekaran, M. (2022). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mediated enhanced biomass, root morphological traits and nutrient uptake under drought stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of Fungi, 8(7), 660. https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8070660
Fahad, S., Bajwa, A. A., Nazir, U., Anjum, S. A., Farooq, A., Zohaib, A., Sadia, S., Nasim, W., Adkins, S., Saud, S., Ihsan, M. Z., Alharby, H., Wu, C., Wang, D., & Huang, J. (2017). Crop production under drought and heat stress: Plant responses and management options. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8, 1147. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.01147
Fereres, E., & Soriano, M. A. (2007). Deficit irrigation for reducing agricultural water use. Journal of Experimental Botany, 58(2), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erl165
Fernández-Lizarazo, J. C., & Moreno-Fonseca, L. P. (2016). Mechanisms for tolerance to water-deficit stress in plants inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: A review. Agronomía Colombiana, 34(2), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.15446/agron.colomb.v34n2.55569
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2018). FAOSTAT. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Ikuemonisan, E. S., Mafimisebi, T. E., Ajibefun, I., & Adenegan, K. (2020). Cassava production in Nigeria: Trends, instability and decomposition analysis (1970–2018). Heliyon, 6(10), e05089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05089
Lone, R., Mushtaq, G., Hassan, N., Malla, N. A., Rohella, G. K., & Khan, S. (2024). Role of phenolics in establishing mycorrhizal association in plants for management of biotic stress. In R. Lone, S. Khan, & A. M. Al-Sadi (Eds.), Plant phenolics in biotic stress management (pp. 35–74). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3334-1_2
Okogbenin, E., Setter, T. L., Ferguson, M., Mutegi, R., Ceballos, H., Olasanmi, B., & Fregene, M. (2013). Phenotypic approaches to drought in cassava: Review. Frontiers in Physiology, 4, 93. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2013.00093
Oyetunji, O. J., Ekanayake, I. J., & Osonubi, O. (2007). The relationship between water deficit, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and chlorophyll fluorescence in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). African Crop Science Conference Proceedings, 8, 1187–1196.
Pereira, L. F. M., Santos, H. L., Zanetti, S., Brito, I. A. O., Tozin, L. R. S., Rodrigues, T. M., & Silva, M. A. (2022). Morphology, biochemistry, and yield of cassava as functions of growth stage and water regime. South African Journal of Botany, 149, 222–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2022.06.003
Sardans, J., & Peñuelas, J. (2021). Potassium control of plant functions: Ecological and agricultural implications. Plants, 10(2), 419. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020419
Setter, T. L., & Fregene, M. A. (2007). Recent advances in molecular breeding of cassava for improved drought stress tolerance. In M. A. Jenks, P. M. Hasegawa, & S. M. Jain (Eds.), Advances in molecular breeding toward drought and salt tolerant crops (pp. 701–711). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5578-2
Thanni, B. (2024). Mycorrhizal inoculation for a sustainable cassava production [Doctoral dissertation, KU Leuven]. Lirias.
Turyagyenda, L. F., Kizito, E. B., Ferguson, M., Baguma, Y., Agaba, M., Harvey, J. J. W., & Osiru, D. S. O. (2013). Physiological and molecular characterization of drought responses and identification of candidate tolerance genes in cassava. AoB PLANTS, 5, plt007. https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plt007
Wahab, A., Muhammad, M., Munir, A., Abdi, G., Zaman, W., Ayaz, A., Khizar, C., & Reddy, S. P. P. (2023). Role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in regulating growth, enhancing productivity, and potentially influencing ecosystems under abiotic and biotic stresses. Plants, 12(17), 3102. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12173102
Yang, X., Lu, M., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Liu, Z., & Chen, S. (2021). Response mechanism of plants to drought stress. Horticulturae, 7(3), 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7030050
Zia, R., Nawaz, M. S., Siddique, M. J., Hakim, S., & Imran, A. (2021). Plant survival under drought stress: Implications, adaptive responses, and integrated rhizosphere management strategy for stress mitigation. Microbiological Research, 242, 126626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micres.2020.126626
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammed J.J, Dr. Rabbi Ismail, Dr O.W Olaniyi , doc. Ing. Zbyněk Polesný, Dr. N.O Adeyemi, OTUN A.A
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
