Mahamadi Dianda

Plant conciousness is a scenario where people imbibe the culture of engaging plants as a constant part of their day to day activity. The earth supports both plants and animals, but , plants unlike animals are unable to express themselves by shouting, nagging or crying, e.t.c. They are only able to response saliently thus making them oblivious and constantly neglected. Unfortunately, plants play just as much major roles in sustaining the earth as much as people and animals do. The proper handling of plants is much reliant on the ‘’Plant consciousness or obliviousness’’ of people including both the young and the old. Are people well aware of plants, how important they are to the earth, the environment and it sustenance?, the answer is not enough. There is a need for plant knowledge bridges to create more and adequate awareness about plants, their importance, how they should be handled, how they should be cared for, and an understanding that they are partners for the sustaining our dying world. We seek to change this obvious lack of appreciation and understanding of plants, but how can this be done? We discuss methodologies that have and can been used for bridging this knowledge gap to ensure that our world is safe by protecting and caring for plants.

An increasing need for better agricultural practices that are sustainable to provide increased yields of crops for the ever increasing food demand to be met for the growing world population is a current necessity. It is estimated by the UN that in 2050 the world’s populace may be as much as 9.8 billion global, yet, farmers still face several obstacles, which includes soil degradation, extreme temperatures, and drought which as increasingly becoming more severe with climate changes. Plant health monitoring is a method that will help to increase awareness about plant enhancing by studying how to increase crop yields while decreasing the environmental impacts. The use of low-cost, controlled environments, soil quality, water levels, and pathogenic and pests attacks can be regularly monitored. Currently, several diagnostic technologies and portable point-of-use methods and technologies are employed for detection of diseases, although, the current available lab-based methods used for plant’s diagnostics test are inadequate for plant point-of-use monitoring. The promotion of use of these point of use methods will enable pathogen detection, poor plant growth, unsuitable environmental conditions and nutrient use efficiency allowing for immediate and timely corrective actions to ensure minimal damage to the plants with maximal yield. Increase in the use of sustainable agri practices are required for ensuring higher yields with minimal inputs and that are non-destructive to the land and the use of improved methodologies and technologies will be useful tools for achieving sustainable agriculture.

Rhizobia are biological nitrogen fixing non-pathogenic micro-organisms that make inert nitrogen available to legumes establishing symbiosis and living within their nodules and promoting their growth. Livestock farmers use antibiotics without prescriptions to prevent losses, death and economic wastes, resulting in indiscriminate release of excess, un-utilized antibiotics into the environment causing detrimental effects to soil microbes particularly rhizobia.This study evaluates the susceptibility pattern of selected rhizobia strains. The intrinsic antibiotic resistance (IAR) ability of common rhizobia strains including FA3, B574, RS15, USDA136, USDA9032, R25B, 532C, CC511, RANI22, RAUG1 were investigated. The antibiotics used included Ceftazamine , Florfenicol , Cefpodoxime, Sulphamethoxazole, Ciprofloxacin, Gentamycin , Kanamycin, Ertapenem, Tetracycline , Meropenem and Carbapenem. Results showed different resistance patterns among isolates where high resistance was shown against Carbapenem and least resistance was shown against Ciprofloxacin (40mm), Tetracycline (33mm), kanamycin (45mm) and Gentamycin (50mm). Rani 22 showed most resistant. Most strains showed no resistance to these antibiotics, but it is significant to note that those with resistance can be used for the recovery of antibiotics contaminated sites and may provide potential solutions for futuristic problems associated with AMR.This study suggests that using a consortium of symbiotic rhizobia strains is a strategy to achieve optimal yields in antibiotic contaminated fields as the strains showed differences in their susceptibility pattern. Also, the antibiotics produced or contained active compounds and substances that are detrimental for the growth of rhizobia and may therefore be a hindrance to these plant growth promoting bacteria when they are applied to aid plant growth used during agricultural practises.

Rhizobia are biological nitrogen‐fixing nonpathogenic microorganisms that make inert nitrogen available to legumes establishing symbiosis, living in nodules to promote growth. Livestock farmers use antibiotics without prescriptions to prevent losses, death and economic wastes, resulting in indiscriminate release of excess, unutilized antibiotics into the environment causing detrimental effects to soil microbes particularly rhizobia. This study evaluates the susceptibility pattern of selected rhizobia strains. The intrinsic antibiotic resistance (IAR) ability of common rhizobia strains including FA3, B574, RS15, USDA136, USDA9032, R25B, 532C, CC511, RANI22 and RAUG1 was investigated. The antibiotics used included ceftazidime, florfenicol, cefpodoxime, sulphamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, kanamycin, ertapenem, tetracycline, meropenem and carbapenem. Strains showed highest resistance to carbapenem but were generally susceptible to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, kanamycin and gentamycin. Rani 22 showed most resistant. Most strains showed no resistance to these antibiotics, but those with resistance abilities are of significance and can be used for recovering antibiotics contaminated sites, providing potential solutions for futuristic problems associated with AMR. This study suggests using a consortium of symbiotic rhizobia strains as a strategy to achieve optimal yields in antibiotic contaminated fields, since strains showed different susceptibility pattern. Also, the antibiotics produced active compounds/substances detrimental for rhizobia’s growth potentially hindering their activities as plant growth promoting bacteria, when applied as inoculant during agricultural practises. Antibiotics are therefore of major agricultural concern posing major threats by promoting poor plant growths, productivity and yields despite the use of rhizobia as plant growth enhancers.

Bambara groundnut (BG) (Vigna subterranean L. verdc) is a highly nutritious and economically important leguminous crop of African origin that forms symbiotic relationships nitrogen fixing rhizobia, but it has a low yield. Currently, there is paucity of information on effective rhizobium inoculant, (to improve the yield), for BG which are cheaper and safer alternatives to chemical fertilizers. Indigenous rhizobia strains were trapped from 54 farm soils collected at three Nigerian states (Niger, Kaduna and Kano). Six selected rhizobium strains (Bradhyrhizobium spp) were identified using 16S rDNA sequencing, applied as inoculant in field experiment using completely randomized block design and compared with USDA110 strain (Bradhyrhizobim japonicum), urea fertilizer and un-inoculated plants on 2 selected BG varieties (TVSU1248 and TVSU 631). Nutrient utilization and nitrogen fixation in plants were determined at 6 weeks while leaf chlorophyll was determined forth-nightly. Seed yield was determined at maturity. The strains increased the %nitrogen (1.33±0.10 - ≥1.37±0.05), and %phosphorous (0.48±0.02 - ≥0.51±0.02), %nitrogen fixed (21.07±2.38 - ≥61.30±6.13), nodulation (72.50±21.075 - 154.00±23.79) and leaf chlorophyll were ≥49.74±1.47mg/L, ≥51.82±1.86mg/L and ≥49.65±1.56mg/L at 2nd, 4th and 6th week after planting respectively and the yield of BG (from average of 398.6 Kgha-1 to 1454.725 Kgha-1). Seed yield was highest (1869.85±273.68 Kgha-1) in BG variety TVSU1248 using BN5 strain. Indigenous Bambara-symbiotic strains significantly increased the seed yields, and plant nutrient, showing their potential as use for inoculant to improve the yield of Bambara groundnut.

For tree legumes, Faidherbia albida is among those with low symbiotic capability, and for which significant improvement is needed. An experiment was conducted in the greenhouse, using the ¹⁵N isotope dilution technique to measure differences in the proportion (%Ndfa) and total N fixed in seven F. albida provenances grown in an Arenosol soil in Senegal. Total dry matter and N yield values were not significantly different among the seven provenances. In contrast, significant variability was measured in N₂ fixation, with %Ndfa ranging from 0% in two provenances to 38% in the Kabrousse provenance. Also, total N fixed was highest in Kabrousse, 0.44 g N plant^‐1, compared with the 0 to 0.26 g plant^‐1 fixed in the other provenances. Based on these results, Kabrouse was selected for further examination in the field, where still higher %Ndfa values were obtained, 54, 58, and 54% at 3, 6, and 15 months after transplanting (MAT), respectively. These are higher than the commonly reported values of %Ndfa for F. albida, and indicate the potential of screening as a tool for obtaining higher N₂ fixation in NFTs. Total N fixed, unlike %Ndfa, which remained fairly constant during the three harvest periods, increased from 0.54 at 3 MAT to 1.41 g N plant^‐1 at 15 MAT.