In the changing climate of semi-arid regions, optimizing mineral fertilizer regimes is essential to minimize environmental degradation, support ecological recovery, and sustain biomass crop production. Significant research gaps remain regarding the macronutrient (nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) requirements of untraditional and underutilized leguminous forage crops like rice bean (Vigna umbellata), especially in the low-fertility soils of semi-arid regions. To bridge this research gap, a two-year field experiment was conducted to study the growth, forage yield and nutritional quality of rice bean as affected by different fertilization regimes, including a single fertilization regimen (N 150 kg ha-1), double fertilization regime (N 150 kg ha-1 and P 100 kg ha-1), and triple fertilization (N 150 kg ha-1, P 100 kg ha-1, and K 100 kg ha-1), along with a control (no fertilization) treatment. The results showed that the triple fertilization remained superior by producing the highest plant density, plant height, and leaf area index, along with fresh and dry weight of rice bean during both seasons. Additionally, this fertilization treatment recorded its supremacy by producing the highest green forage yield (179% greater than control) and dry matter biomass. Concerning the nutritional quality of forage rice bean, the triple fertilization regime gave the greatest contents of crude protein, ether extractable fats, and total ash, whereas fiber content was significantly decreased. Double fertilization followed it, which in turn was followed by a single fertilization, underscoring the need for integrated and balanced supplementation of macronutrients for forage rice bean production in semi-arid regions. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed a highly significant association of plant height (R2= 0.987***), leaf area index (R2= 0.977***), and fresh weight per plant (R2= 0.977***) with green forage yield of rice bean. However, further research is needed to examine the impact of these fertilizer regimes on nitrogen fixation rate in rice bean root nodules, along with the estimation of nutrient losses in the form of leaching and volatilization.

 

Tomatoes are known for their quality and nutritional value all over the world. It provides approximately 40% of the daily-required vitamin C and vitamin A to support human health. This vegetable is usually grown in high tunnels, but in these structures, the natural pollinators (insects, birds, wind, and mammals, etc.) are not available, which badly affects the yield. To avoid this issue, an artificial pollinator handheld vibration device was used to mechanically transfer pollen by simulating the natural vibration to evaluate its performance at three different frequency levels (70, 85, and 100 Hz) for the Sahel hybrid cultivar. The proposed research performed a comparative analysis between natural and artificial pollination to explore the perspective of practical application. Considering the specific floral morphology and physiological characteristics of plant flowers during the pollination phase, the research scrutinizes the impact of artificial pollination. Results indicated that artificial pollination significantly improved crop performance over natural pollination in terms of fruit number by 40%, average fruit weight by 9.82 %, total fruit count by 34.5%, and yield up to 37.04%, respectively. Among the studied frequencies, the 85Hz frequency produced the highest yield (37kg). Average fruit weight of four treatments plants was close to each other, and remained relatively consistent (≈115 ± 8 g) across treatments. A one-way ANOVA analysis demonstrated a significant impact of artificial pollination on the number of fruits, yield, and fruit conversion (p