Alleviation salinity stress in germination, seedling vigor, growth, physiochemical, yield and nutritional value of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) using magnetic technology in sandy soil

Most of the field crops (including chickpeas) in the Nubaria region depend on groundwater wells, which may contain different degrees of salinity (2000-2200 ppm), especially in the event of a delay or shortage of water in the Nubariya Canal (the main source of irrigation in that area). To alleviate salinity stress on germination, seedling attributes, growth, pigments, physiochemical, yield and nutritional value of Chickpea; Laboratory and Field Experiments using Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L; imported from India by Nahar El-khair Company for Import and Export, 149 Hosh Issa, El-Beheira Governorate) were conducted, respectively, at Laboratory of Field Crops Research Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt and Experimental Research and Production Station of National Research Centre at El-Emam Malak Village, El-Nuberia District, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt during winter seasons of 2019/20 and 2020/21. The current study is aiming to evaluate the effect of magneto-priming seeds on Chickpea plants: growth, yield, pigments and physiochemical contents under saline conditions. Results of Laboratory experiment indicated that significant increases were recorded regarding application of different magneto-priming seed treatments (T-1-T-5; 0.05, 0.11, 0.19, 0.27, 0.31 Tesla) compared to untreated (sowing dry seeds) in Seed Germination (G; %), Germination Index (GI), Speed Germination Index (SGI), Germination Energy (GE; %) and Germination Rate (GR; day), seedling length (cm), seedling weight (g), seedling vigor-I and seedling vigor-II of Chickpea. As an average of all magneto-priming treatments (T-1-T-5), the improvement reached 7.31, 7.31, 20.79, 6.91, 5.34, 22.13, 29.41, 34.45, 31.13 and 44.13% in the above-mentioned characters, respectively compared to untreated seed. Similar positive effects were observed in Mean Germination Time (MGT; day) where the seeds were faster germinated by 17.89% compared to untreated treatment. The best magnetized-seeds treatment was applied under field conditions, where irrigation with water passed through magnetic device (2 inch, produced by NRC; 0.20 Tesla) induced positive significant effect in Chickpea growth, pigments and physiochemical at 75 DAS, yield components, yield (ton fed(-1)) and nutritional value of yielded seeds at harvest under drip irrigation system. The percentage of improvement reached 13.61-26.10% in morphological parameters, 9.64-12.35% in photosynthetic pigment contents, 8.35-23.03% in physiochemical parameters, 8.07-25.54% in yield and its components and 4.00-10.74% in nutritional values of yielded seeds. Under conditions of experiments, could be concluded that application of magnetized water and seed technology alleviate salinity water stress which resulted in improvement of growth and productivity of Chickpea under Nubaria region

Automated summary

The study conducted field and laboratory experiments in Egypt's Nubaria region to evaluate the effects of magnet treatment on chickpeas. Results showed that magnetizing seeds can significantly improve the growth and yield of chickpeas.