Uptake and Use Efficiencies of Nutrients by Sesame and Bambara Nut Alley Crops as Influenced by Manuring in a Cashew-Based Intercropping System in the Guinea Savanna Agroecology of Nigeria

Field experiments were conducted at the experimental farm Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) Sub-Station, Ochaja, in the Southern Guinea Savannaagro ecological zone of Nigeria to examine uptake and use efficiencies of nutrients by Sesame and Bambara nut alley crops as influenced by manuring in a Cashew-based intercropping system. Experimental treatments were based on responses of sole and intercrop mixtures of Sesame and Bambara nut alley crops to Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH), pelletized organic fertilizer and NPK fertilizer in a cashew-based intercropping system. Data were collected on the growth and yield variables of the alley crops. Highest nitrogen harvest index (NHI) for seed and leaf of alley crops were obtained from un-manure treated plants. Cocoa pod husk (CPH) significantly enhanced P uptake compared with other fertilizers applied. CPH improved Na, Ca, Mg Zn, Cu, P, K and carbohydrate in the leaves and Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu, crude fibre and carbohydrate contents of seeds of sole crops while Sesame + Bambara had enhanced contents of N, Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu, P, N, K, moisture, protein, and crude fibre, crude protein, moisture content in leaves. The effects of NPK were significant for N, K Ca, Zn, Fe, Cu, P, moisture and crude fibre, while in the un-manure (control) plots influenced N, fat and protein and nitrogen harvest index (NHI) of leaf and seeds. CPH and NPK fertilizers enhanced nutrient uptake and nitrogen harvest index of alley crops. Nutrient uptake was similar for the varieties of Sesame and Bambara nut as affected by the application of 4.84 and 9.68 Kg pelletized organic fertilizer. Sole Bambara had higher N and How to cite this paper: Agele, S., Beatrice, N., Babadele, F. and Solomon, A. (2018) Uptake and Use Efficiencies of Nutrients by Sesame and Bambara Nut Alley Crops as Influenced by Manuring in a Cashew-Based Intercropping System in the Guinea Savanna Agroecology of Nigeria. Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment, 7, 153-175. https://doi.org/10.4236/jacen.2018.74014 Received: July 23, 2018 Accepted: November 16, 2018 Published: November 19, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access


Introduction
In recent years, the increased tendency for intensive vegetable production in the tropics has increased the demand for high application rates of fertilizers to maximize yields.High costs and accessibility of fertilizer constitute huge constraints to the success of intensive vegetable production [1] [2].The continuous cropping systems of the tropics reduce soil fertility.Rapid degradation of soil quality and accelerated erosion in sub-Saharan Africa has become a huge problem where annual N depletion rate is about 26 kg year −1 [3] [4].Increase in N uptake and utilization efficiency by crops without deleterious effect on yield and ecosystem are required [2] [5].
Worldwide, the interest in the use of organic materials as sources of nutrients (fertilizers) for the production of organically grown vegetables had increased [5].
A balanced use of organic and mineral fertilizer could enhance stable soil chemical, physical and biological properties in addition to a large and rapid rate of nutrient turn over and high soil fertility status within the soil-plant system.Bair [6] opined that proper soil fertility management and sustainable agriculture can be achieved with the use of both mineral fertilizer and organic manure.Paul and Mannan [7] suggested that integrated nutrient management through combined use of organic wastes and chemical fertilizers can be an effective approach to combat nutrient depletion and promote sustainable crop productivity.Increases in soil organic matter pool have the potential to increase crop yield and N uptake.Replenishing the nutrients removed by crops by recycling back of agricultural wastes into the soil can sustain soil and crop productivity [7].There is ample opportunity for nutrient recycling in the tropics where huge amounts of agricultural wastes are generated yearly.It would be necessary to develop economically and environmentally suitable integrated nutrient management packages for sustaining the changing needs of intensive vegetable production in the tropics.Integrated use of organic wastes and mineral fertilizer is reported to reduce the cost and amount of fertilizer required by crops.This practice is also known to improve nutrient use efficiency and chemical and nutritional quality of crops [8].Renewable management of organic sources of N through use of agricultural waste materials would improve the quality of the environment and soil health.
The growth and yield performance of a crop are a function of the status of soil nutrients (especially N) [9].Yield increase may respond to additional N supply and increased N utilisation efficiency for yield production.Physical and chemical availability of nutrients and plant physiological factors affect the rate of nutrient absorption in plants [5].Potential availability of nutrients for plant uptake is a function of its solubility in the growing media and its physical location in the root zone.Physiological factors affect diffusion transport and rates of nutrient transfer across root boundaries and nutrient uptake through differentiation between the absorption of water and nitrates [8].The level of N supply to the growing tissues, flowering and fruit set and N accumulation/concentration in Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment plant tissues (fruits) are affected by the time of N application and root absorption efficiency.Although a high level of N supply to the growing tissues will be maintained when the time of N application coincides with maximum root absorption efficiency, maximum partitioning of N between the reproductive and vegetative organs may not be attained [5] [8].
Most crops are capable of accumulating huge amounts of nitrates (NO 3 ) in their tissues [10].Although nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 -N) contents in plant parts are important to its quality, a high nitrate concentration in edible plant parts is detrimental to human health [2].Causal relations between nitrate intake and methaemoglobinaemia and carcinogenic nitrosamines have been established.Variability in the efficiency of N translocation and nitrogen harvest index (NHI) by nitrogen availability were confirmed for lettuce leaf [11] and tomato [2].Soil mal-nutrition is becoming widespread and increasing problems especially in the tropics hence the need to increase through management practices, the N uptake and utilisation efficiencies of crops.Accumulation and partitioning of biomass and N between vegetative and reproductive components (NHI) are commonly used in addition to other criteria in the selection for yield in crops [5] and to create cultivars adapted to low input management systems.Although these attributes vary in diverse ecologies, there are however, scanty information on uptake and use of soil N in crop species common to the cropping systems of the humid tropics [5] [12].
Our working hypotheses were based on literature reports.Rather et al. [9] and Graham [13] postulated that N efficiency in terms of high yield production is affected by the status of soil N, and crop varieties may differ in performance under varying soil N status.Rather et al. [9] and Agele et al. [8] opined that crop yield responses may increase under fertilizer treatments possibly due to improved efficiency of nutrient utilization for yield production.The nutrient release characteristics of organic materials depends on the material, particle size, soil temperature and moisture content [8].In addition to this, the availability of soil N, the efficiency of its uptake and use in biomass and fruit production are also affected by crop types, soil and climatological characteristics of a region [8] [14] [15].Based on these reports, some hypotheses were formulated as follows: That externally applied nutrients from different sources (organic and inorganic) would results in partitioning of large amounts of nutrients for growth.The efficiencies of nitrogen uptake and utilization for yield production and hence NHI are strongly affected by nutrient availability from fertilizer sources.The objectives of this study were to provide information which would improve understanding of the nutrient cycling of incorporated agricultural wastes used alone, and in combination with reduced rates of chemical fertilizer and to develop an integrated nutrient management package for vegetable production in the tropics.

Materials and Methods
Experiments were conducted between 2013 and 2015 cropping seasons at the experimental farm Cocoa research institute of Nigeria Sub-Station located in Ochaja, Kogi State in the Southern Guinea Savanna agroecological zone of Nigeria.The objective was to address the constraints of declining soil fertility via manuring to enhance uptake and use efficiencies of nutrients and hence optimizing the benefits of resource availability within cashew alley.Experimental treatments were based on responses of sole and intercrop mixtures of Sesame and Bambara nut alley crops to Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH), pelletized organic fertilizer and NPK fertilizer in a cashew-based intercropping system.Treatments were a factorial scheme consisting of crop types (sole and intercrop mixtures of Sesame and Bambara nut) and fertilizers (Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH)), pelletized organic manure and NPK fertilizer arranged using RCBD at three replications.There was an unmanured control.The fertilizers were applied two weeks after planting (WAP).Data were collected on the growth and yield variables of the alley crops.Bambara nut and Sesame seeds were planted in the Cashew alley and separated by unplanted cashew boarder plant.Fertilizers were applied two weeks after planting (WAP) using Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH: 6.17 kg/plot) and N.P.K (1.44 kg/plot) in a twelve treatments layout comprised of sole and intercrop combination of Sesame and Bambara nut as alley crops in cashew.In addition, the responses of varieties of Bambara nut (TVSu1166 and TVSu999) and Sesame (E-8 and NCRIBen04E (Ex-Sudan)) to varying rates (0, 4.84 and 9.68 kg/plot) of organic pelletized manure in cashew alley was examined.
Data were collected on nutrient uptake and use efficiencies using indicators such as Agronomic Efficiency (AE), Physiological Efficiency (PE), Apparent Recovery (RE), Apparent Recovery Efficiency by difference (RE%), Utilization Efficiency (UE), Internal Utilization Efficiency (IE), Partial Factor Production (PFP).Agronomic Efficiency (AE): AE is calculated in units of yield increase per unit of nutrient applied.Its more closely reflects the direct production impact of an applied fertilizer and relates directly to economic return.The calculation of AE requires knowledge of yield without nutrient input, so is only known when research plots with zero nutrient input have been implemented on the farm [16] where: Y = Yield of harvested portion of crop with nutrient applied, U = Total nutrient uptake in above ground crop biomass with nutrient applied.
Partial Factor Productivity (PFP): PFP is a simple production efficiency expression, calculated in units of crop yield per unit of nutrient applied using the method of [19].

Partial Factor Productivity
Y PFp F = where: Y = Yield of harvested portion of crop with nutrient applied, F = Amount of nutrient applied.

Data on determination of crop mixture productivity between Bambara and Sesame
System productivity index (SPI) was calculated according to [19]: where S is the mean yield of each plant in sole culture and Y is the mean yield of each plant in mixed crop.
Relative yield was computed using the formula as described by [20]: ( ) ( ) Relative yield total (RYT): Relative yield total is defined as the sum of relative yields of the species in mixture expressed as a ratio of its yield in monoculture.Mathematically, as described by [21], it is expressed as: RYT ry ry r y = + + +  where: ry a and ry b are the relative yields of species a and b respectively.
Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) is expressed in several ways as reported in literature as follows.
The efficiency of conversion of nutrient taken up by the plant into crop biomass was calculated as follows;

Conversion efficiency of nutrient
Total above ground biomass X Total uptake of nutrient = where: Total aboveground biomass is the sum of seed + leaves biomass expressed on a dry weight basis.Uptake efficiency refers to the ability of crop to extract or absorb nutrients from the soil.The uptake of nutrients was calculated from the measurement of N. P and K content in the seeds and leaves biomass (Root were not considered).Nutrient accumulated (Uptake).Total plant uptake = N concentration in the sample biomass multiply by weight of the biomass.Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment The uptake of nutrients was calculated from the measurements of N, P, and K contains in seed and leaves biomass (root were not considered in this experiment).

Uptake efficiency
Total above ground nutrient in the plant at maturity Nt Nutrient supplied Ns

− =
The conversion efficiencies for N, P, and K have the unit of Kg DM Kg N −1 , Kg DM Kg P −1 , Kg DM Kg K −1 .
Nitrogen Harvest index (NHI): N harvest index was defined as the percent of grain N uptake to total plant N uptake.The proportion of total plant N partitioned to the seed is called the N harvest index (NHI) according to [22]: Seed N uptake total plant N uptake Fertilizer agronomic efficiency refers to the quantity of yields obtained from the application of 1 Kg of fertilizer.It can be calculated as Kg of fertilizer or an element of interest (For example N, P, K etc.) and calculated using the procedure as outlined as follows: (AEF; kg•kg −1 ) = (yield at Fx − yield at F0) to (applied F at Fx).
where F is fertilizer, Yields at Fx is the yield obtained from the amount of fertilizer applied, and Yield at Fo is the yield from the control.

Results and Discussion
The results of the pre-cropping soil properties are presented in Table  fertilizers was within the satisfactory range for Sesame and Bambara production (5.5 -7.0).Pelletized fertilizer (4.84 and 9.68 kg/plot) significantly influenced soil pH, OM, K, Ca, Mg and CEC, soil texture and water holding capacity (WHC) silt and clay properties and both rates influenced OM and N. Soil pH ranged from 5.5 -7.0 and NPK fertilizer, CPH and Pelletized organic fertilizer significantly increased the soil organic matter content.Pelletized fertilizer at 4.84 and 9.68 kg/plot significantly influenced soil pH, OM, K, Ca, Mg and CEC.The applied fertilizers (CPH, NPK and pelletized organic fertilizer) improved physical and chemical properties of the soil.The un-manure (Control) differed significantly from fertilizer treatments for soil pH and clay contents.Organic carbon obtained increased slightly in the Cocoa pod husk (CPH) and NPK fertilizer treated soils than the un-manure.Soil organic carbon (SOC) can be increased by mixed cropping, or with the use of cover crops.The treatment involving pelletized organic fertilizer had enhanced N, OM content.Organic manures improved the soil properties, thus the use of a leguminous plant (Bambara) not only influenced the nitrogen (N), Potassium (K) and phosphate (P), but also the exchangeable cations and the soil organic carbon (SOC) content.Uptake of N and K for sole sesame was significant under NPK application compared to the organic fertilizers, P uptake was significantly influenced by application of CPH manure and enhanced uptake of N and P for Sesame (Table 3 and Table 4).Un-manured (control) plants had a significantly higher N compared to the fertilizer treated plants.Sole Sesame leaves had significantly higher chemical constituents for NPK, while N harvest index for Sesame + Bambara was significant CPH manure influenced Nitrogen Harvest index (NHI) compared to NPK and un-manure (Table 2(a) and Table 2(b)).Sesame + Bambara had higher Nitrogen harvest index (NHI) for NPK treatment NPK significantly influenced all the parameters measured except NHI which was significant for un-manure control.Sole Sesame under NPK fertilizer influenced NHI compared with Sesame + Bambara Sole Bambara leaves had higher N and K concentration compared to the Bambara + Sesame (Table 3).The Sesame nutrient uptake was similar in both cropping year for both varieties (E8 and NCRIBen04E) under application of 9.68 Kg pelletized fertilizer compared with 4.84 Kg pelletized fertilizer were enhanced for Sesame variety E8.Pelletized fertilizer (4.84 kg/plot) promoted uptake of N significantly compared to un-manure (Table 4).While 9.68 kg enhanced contents of P, K, N and K.The Sesame variety E8 was better in terms of N uptake (P > 0.05) compared with NCRIBen04E.Sesame variety E8 had enhanced N under application of 4.84 kg pelletized fertilizer compare to 9.68 kg in both years.The plots for which organic fertilizer at 9.68 kg was applied had higher uptake of P and K compared with un-manure (control) and 4.86 kg pelletized fertilizer.
Bambara plants had higher leaf N content in both cropping years, while the NPK fertilizer influenced P and K (Table 5 and Table 6).The un-manure had higher N and P contents in leaves compared to fertilizers treatment for Sole Bambara.Bambara + Sesame had high P and K except for N contents which was  Means with the same letters along each column are not significantly different using Lsd at 0.05 level of probability.significant for the un-manure (control) and CPH treatment P and K uptake were enhanced NPK fertilizer.Sole Bambara leaves had higher N and K contents compare to the Bambara planted with Sesame.The Bambara variety TVSu1166 had significantly higher contents of P, fat, crude fiber and carbohydrate and was significant in the un-manure plot.Application of 4.84 kg pelletized fertilizer enhanced N, Na, Ca, Fe, Cu, Ash and protein content, while 9.68 kg pelletized fertilizer significantly influence K, Mg, Zn and moisture content in the Bambara nut.Bambara variety TVSu1166 had higher K up-take and Nitrogen harvest index (NHI), which were significantly different from 9.68 kg pelletized fertilizer.Bambara variety Tvsu999 was significant in Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) with 4.84 Kg pelletized fertilizer treatment apart from the NHI (Table 6).Application of NPK fertilizer significantly influenced most of the nutrient use efficiency parameters measured.Agronomy Efficiency (AE), Apparent recovery Efficiency (RE), Apparent recovery Efficiency by difference (RE%), Physiological Efficiency (PE), Utilization Efficiency (UE), Internal utilization Efficiency (IE) and Partial Fertilizer productivity (PFP) were significantly high in the intercrops, apart from the N removed during harvest in Sole Sesame (Table 7 and Table 8).Similar trends were observed in the Sesame + Bambara plots, apart for Internal Utilization Efficiency which was higher in the un-manure (control)  meters measured for sole Bambara apart from the N-removed at harvest which was not affected.In our study AE values was less than 1, however it has been reported that AE values may be lower than 5 since it is dependent upon soil, crop, nutrient rate of absorption and losses.Low AE indicate that N was not fully utilized or limiting nutrient absorption.Results showed that AE values were greater than 5. Similar results was obtained by Mengel et al. [23] which was attributed to nitrogen fixing ability of legumes Results showed that Agronomy efficiency (AE), Recovery efficiency (RE), Recovery efficiency by difference (RE%) and Utilization efficiency (UE) were higher in values for Sesame (NCRIBen04E, Ex-Sudan) under 9.68 kg pelletized fertilized treatments is an indication of high yield productivity.The Physiology efficiency (PE) and partial factor productivity (PFP) were significantly influence by 4.84 kg pelletized fertilizer.The results were consistent with those obtained by [5] [24] that soil nutrient availability increased and enhanced crop yields and NUE by fertilizer rates.The author concluded that differences in soil nutrient status are a major source of variation in yield and nutrient uptake and subsequently nutrient utilization efficiency of oil seed crops.Application of 9.68 kg POF produced highest nutrient N-use efficiency values (REF).However, E8 Sesame variety shows differences in variation for resources use efficiency.While 4.84 kg/plot POF increased internal use efficiency (IE), 9.68 kg enhanced PFP.According to Thobatsi [24], intercrops which differ in rooting and nutrient uptake patterns result in efficient use of nutrients, especially nitrogen uptake.In this study Sesame nutrient uptake response to N.P.K fertilizer is improved.The result also show that the application of Cocoa pod husk (CPH) manure and NPK fertilizer to the Cashew soil with Sesame intercropped, alternatively with Bambara affected nutrient up-take of leaves and seed, thus increased proper utilization of the nutrient available from the soil.The greatest mean valves were obtained in the intercrop of Sesame plant alongside with Bambara crops.Agele et al. [5] [8] (2008, 2011) improved NUE for crops under application of organic and inorganic ferrttlizers.The result of the un-manure treated Sole sesame plants shows that N and P nutrient composition was significantly influence in seed production.This behavior could be attributed to nutritional balance in the soil.The results contradict the findings of Havlin et al. [25] who reported that P absorption is greater in soils with little P adsorbed to mineral surfaces.The highest nitrogen harvest index values for seed and leaf of Sesame plants were obtained from the un-manure treated plants.The superiority of these may be attributed to more vigorous nutrient exploitation advantage or to the legume effect from Bambara plants.Agele et al. [8] observed that without the applications of fertilizers, yield and NHI responses will be small.In this study the use of CPH manure, NPK fertilizer and the control (Un-manure) treatments enhanced Bambara leaf and seed nutrient composition.This could be attributed to differences in nutrient inputs by the fertilizers, differences in nutrient demand by the crops, one being a nitrogen fixing plants.It is reported that nutrient availability depended on nutrient concentration in the soil and environment and release NUPE = (kg nutrient taken up)/(kg nutrient available) U NUPE F S = + where: N: Nutrient, U: Plant nutrient uptake of above ground biomass at maturity, F: Fertilizer applied, S: Nutrient in the soil.Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE): This is a term used to indicate the ratio between the amount of fertilizer N removed from the field by the crop and the amount of fertilizer N applied.This ratio describes the efficiency of N fertilizer utilization in crop production express in % according to the methods of [23]: ( ) N remove with harvest N crop uptake fertilized N crop uptake unfertilized 100 Nfertilizer Minerial N − = × Fertilizer use efficiency reflects the recovery of applied fertilizer by the crop, however from the crop perspective, N (or other nutrient) use efficiency is a measure of biomass produced as a function of the N (or other nutrient) available to that crop.
Internal Utilization efficiency (IE): IE is defined as the yield in relation to total nutrient uptake.It varies with genotype, environment and management.A very high IE suggests deficiency of that nutrient.Low IE suggests poor internal nutrient conversion due to other stresses (deficiencies of other nutrients, drought stress, heat stress, mineral toxicities, pests etc.).
[18]ha −1 ) is the amount of nutrient applied.Apparent recovery efficiency by difference was computed according to[17].where:U is Total nutrient uptake in above ground crop biomass with nutrient applied, Uo is Nutrient uptake in above ground crop biomass with no nutrient applied, F = Amount of fertilizer applied.Utilization efficiency (UE): Nutrient Utilization efficiency is a product of physiological and apparent recovery efficiency.It can be calculated according to[18](Dobermann (2007)).Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment − ⋅ =×

Table 1 .
Pre-cropping physical and chemical propertiesof soil of site of study.
. The applied fertilizers (CPH, NPK and Pelletized organic fertilizer) improved soil physical and chemical properties (Table 2(a) and Table 2(b)).Soil pH under the

Table 2
. (a) Manuring effect on physical and chemical properties of soil in cashew-based Intercropping system; (b) Effects of organic fertilizer (Fert Plus) on physical and chemical properties of soil in cashew-based Intercropping system.(a)

Table 3 .
Manuring effects on chemical and proximate composition of Sesame.

Table 4 .
Effect of organic fertilizer (Fert Plus) on Sesame leaf nutrient composition.

Table 5 .
Manuring effect on Bambara Leaf nutrient composition.

Table 6 .
Effects of organic fertilizer onBambara Leaf nutrient composition.

Table 7 .
Manuring effects on agronomic and physiological efficiencies of N use by Sesame.

Table 8 .
Effects of organic fertilizer on agronomic and physiological efficiencies of N use by Sesame.Fertilizer type affected nutrient use efficiency parameters measured.NPK fertilizer promoted these parameters compared to CPH and un-manure plots.Sole Sesame plants had significantly higher RE, PE, UE PFP while Sesame + Bambara significant improved AE, RE, UE, N-removed at harvest PFP comparable to the sole Sesame plants.However, in 2014 no significant differences amongst the parameter measured, apart from PFP for sole Sesame plants.The combination of Sesame + Bambara with NPK fertilizer had significantly higher AE, RE, UE, N-removed at harvest and PFP.NPK fertilizer treatment plants had a significantly higher value of compared to CPH manure and the un-manure plants.Sole Sesame significantly influence agronomy efficiency (AE), utilization efficiency (UE), internal efficiency (IE) and partial factor productivity (PFP).Sole Bambara under N.P.K fertilizer had higher N-removed at harvest and apparent recovery by difference (RE%).Bambara + Sesame under cocoa pod husk (CPH) manure had enhanced apparent recovery efficiency by difference (RE%), fertilizer use efficiency (FAE) and internal utilization efficiency (IE).NPK fertilizer enhanced Physiology efficiency (PE) and Partial factor productivity.Fertilizer type affected significantly AE, agronomic N-use efficiency (ANUE), RE, UE and PFP for 2013.CPH manure treatment significantly influence RE%, PE and IE.The N-remove at harvest was significantly higher in the un-manure plants (control).Sole Bambara significantly influenced AE, RE%, PE, FAE, IE and UE.Bambara + Sesame had significantly enhanced N (removed at harvest).Application of fertilizers for 2014 experimental year, significantly improved AE and RE, however CPH manure treatment influenced ANUE, RE%, FAE, UE and PEP significantly.Crop type affected AE, ANUE, RE, RE%, UE, sole Bambara had higher values of most of the parameters measured compared to mixtures of Bambara + sesame.Physiology efficiency (PE), and fertilizer use efficiency (FAE) was significantly different to Bambara + Sesame plants (Table7 and Table 8).RE%, FAE and EU respectively.Bambara variety TVSu999 compared to TVSu1166 had higher IUE (Table9).Application of 4.84 kg organic fertilizer had higher values of most of the parameters measured expect for partial factor

Table 9 .
Effects of organic fertilizer on agronomic and physiological efficiencies of N use by Bambara nut.

Table 10 .
Manuring effect on Bambara agronomic and physiological efficiency of N use.