Evaluation of herbicide management on nodulation of cowpea

Abstract

The use of herbicides will surely have diverse effects on cowpea performance. A screen house trial was conducted in the School of Agric. and Agricultural Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna. Four treatments (pre-emergence (PE)+manual weeding (MW), pre+post emergence (PPE), manual weeding (MW), and weedy check (WC)) replicated thrice were laid in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Two cowpea varieties nodulation, shoot, and root biomass were assessed. Manual weeding recorded the highest shoot dry biomass followed by PE+MW, while WC and PPE had the least shoot biomass in Sampea 14. Also, the highest root dry biomass was recorded for MW, followed by PE+MW, while, PPE and WC applications recorded the least root biomass. Similarly, Sampea 14 had the highest number of nodules under MW, followed by WC, PE+MW recorded the least number of nodules, while, PPE treatment had no nodules. Likewise, MW had the highest nodule effectiveness recorded followed by PE and WC. Sampea 14 treated with MW had the highest nodule weight followed by WC and PE+MW. In conclusion, the overall result of the experiment showed that the application of herbicides has a hazardous effect on cowpea nodulation, and shoot and root growth. Therefore, there is an urgent need to conduct further studies on the impact of different herbicides on cowpea growth.