Investigating Organic and Conventional Cultivating System of Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) in Zahedan Region

بوم شناسی کشاورزی

Article 9, Volume 10, Issue 2 - Serial Number 36, June 2018, Pages 386-399   

Document Type: Scientific - Research

DOI: 10.22067/jag.v10i2.53320

Authors

Issa Piri^{* 1}; Zahra Vahidian¹; Abolfazl Tavassoli¹; Mahdi Babaeian²

¹Department of Agriculture, Payame Noor University, Zahedan Center, Zahedan, Iran

²Department of Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Higher Education Complex of Shirvan, Shirvan, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Medicinal plants are used to treat many diseases that are untreated or rarely treated through modern medical systems. Approximately 80% of the world population depends on medicinal plants for their health and healing. Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) is an aromatic plant in the Apiaceae family that is used in foods, fragrances, and medical preparations (liqueurs, mouthwashes, toothpastes, soaps, and perfumes). They are used as antispasmodic, carminative, and appetite stimulating agents. Cumin is the most widely used medicinal plants in Iran, which is mainly cultivated in order to use its essence. Cumin cultivation area in Iran is 542841 ha that it is 25.7% of the total Iran cultivated area of medicinal plants. Cumin is considered to be a very good compatibility with semi-arid regions of the world. Since the proportion of the agricultural activities in each region with the weather conditions is necessary for any agricultural activity, Therefore, understanding the different factors affecting plant growth, such as climate conditions and genetic resources as well as their impact on quantitative and qualitative characteristics is the most important aspects of a successful product. The use of modern types of fertilizers and pesticides has increased the production of Cumin in Iran. However, there have been concerns of environmental problems caused by inorganic materials and it is very important to investigate the mode of fertilizer and pesticide use and their impact on soil fertility and surrounding environment.
Material and Methods
In order to study the organic and conventional production of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) as a medicinal plant, a field experiment was conducted in factorial experiment as randomized complete block design with three replications during 2012-13 in HesaroyehZahedan region. Treatments included herbicide and pesticide in two levels: application of herbicide and pesticide and without application of herbicide and pesticide as first factor, and four levels of organic and inorganic: without application of fertilizer, manure, chemical fertilizer (N) and 50% manure + 50% chemical fertilizer as second factor. In this experiment measured factors were plant height, No. sub stems per plant, No. capsule per plant, No. seed per capsule, 1000-seed weight, dry and fresh forage yield, seed yield, weeds biomass, essence percentage and essence yield.
Results and Discussion
The results showed that the highest amount of all factors measured except weeds biomass and essence percentage obtained from treatment of consumption of 50% manure + 50% chemical fertilizer. The highest amount of weeds biomass was observed in the treatment of consumption of 50% manure + 50% chemical fertilizer. And the highest amount of essence percentage was achieved from treatment of without application of fertilizer. The effect of herbicide and pesticide on any of the measured factors was not significant. The study of correlation coefficient for cumin showed that forage and seed yield had a positive and significant relationship with all measured factors.
Conclusion
The results of this study showed that the use of manure with chemical fertilizers and without the use of chemical pesticides in terms of biomass and Cumin yield compared to other treatments used in this experiment, especially using chemical fertilizer alone and using chemical fertilizer with pesticide was higher in rank and the quantity and quality of biological and grain yield production of this treatment was higher than other treatments. Manure combined with chemical fertilizers could increase the availability of plant nutrients through a direct impact on increasing yield and its essence content is cumin. In general, according to the results of this experiment we can recommend farmers to use manure with chemical fertilizers and without the use of pesticides to achieve the Cumin highest performance and the best quality.

Keywords

Chemical fertilizer; Cumin; Essential oil; Medicinal plant; yield

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