Impact of chemical and organic fertilizer on the yield and nutritional composition of bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc.)

A pot experiment was conducted to find out the effects of chemical and organic fertilizer on the yield and nutritional composition of bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea). The size of the pot was 65.94 cm. Different rates of compost, biofertilizer, gypsum was used along with the combination of different doses of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer. N and P fertilizers were found to play dominating role to increase yield and nutritional composition of the plant. Number of pod (41.75), 100-seed weight (34.25 g), protein (22.15%), Ca (803.25 mg/ka) increased with the application of N and P 30 and 60 kg/ha, respectively which was better than all other treatments. The application of N30 + P60 kg/ha increased yield and nutritional composition of bambara groundnut. Introduction Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) is basically cultivated in the west and central Africa but now its cultivation has spread all over the world. It can be grown in all kinds of soil especially in marginal soil. Although urea is the most suitable source of N, the plants do not use more than 50% (Hayat et al. 2012) and through volatilization, denitrification and leaching the remaining N is lost. Phosphorus furnishes superior root and soil contact which outcome the higher absorption of mineral nutrients. Application of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer increases the growth and yield of bambara groundnut (Hasan et al. 2018). Biofertilizer (B-Green biofertilizer) are cost-effective and also the renewable on the basis of plant to acquire essential nutrients. Biofertilizer supply nutrient like nitrogen and phosphorus and their actions in the soil or rhizosphere and formulate them into an obtainable form for plants. A legume lives in association with rhizobium bacteria and helps to improve the soil status (Okon 2016). In the composted organic wastes a little amount of C : N ratios exits which are very useful for improving crop yields (Hayat et al. 2012). Soil bacteria are one of the important biotic components that influence decomposition and nutrient mineralization in the terrestrial ecosystem (Laldinthar and Dkhar 2015). Bambara groundnut is considered as balanced diet because of the high per cent of carbohydrate (65%), protein (18%) and fat (6.5%) in the seed (Mazahib et al. 2013). The milk of bambara groundnut used as preventing milk. So far very little reports on the effects of chemical and organic fertilizer on bambara groundnut are available especially in Malaysia. Hence, the present study was carried out to evaluate the impact of chemical and organic fertilizer on yield and nutritional composition of bambara groundnut. Materials and Methods A pot experiments was conducted from February to June in 2017 at the Faculty of Agriculture in Ladang 15, Universiti Putra Malaysia. The size of the pot was 65.94 cm. There were 40 *Author for correspondence: . Department of Land Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. Department of Crop Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia.