Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mostafa Zangoie ¹
• Soheil Parsa ^{2, 3}
• Majid Jami Al-Ahmadi ^{4, 3}
• Ali Izanloo ^{2, 3}

¹ PhD student in Crop Physiology, University of Birjand,Birjand, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Plant Production and Genetics, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

³ Plant and Environmental Stress Research Group, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

⁴ Professor, Department of Plant Production and Genetics, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Camelthorn (Alhagi camelorum Fisch.) is a perennial plant with shrub growing form belonging to Fabaceae family, which is native to large area from Mediterranean to Russia. Camelthorn is very high tolerant to salinity and this is one of the halophytic plants. By using halophytic plants, many products can be produced in saline areas, which one of these products is forage needed by livestock. One of the most important areas for the development of camelthorn cultivation is saline lands that have been excluded from cultivation due to irrigation with saline water for many years that increasing soil salinity. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the plant forage quality in field conditions with irrigation by saline water.
 Materials and methods
The experiment was conducted as split-factorial in a randomized complete block design with three replication in two locations (Farms of the Faculty of Agriculture in the Birjand University and Hojjatabad farm of Peyvand Khavaran Agro- Industry in Sarbishe) at years of 1399. The effect of location was considered fixed. The Experimental factors was included ecotype at two levels (Voshmgir and Korond), Plant density at two levels (10 and 20 plant per square meter) irrigation water salinity at 3 levels (3.5, 7.5 and 12 dS/m). The main plots were included irrigation water salinity levels and the sub-plots were included from a combination of density and ecotype levels. The amounts of crude protein, crude fatty acids, crude ash, acid detergent fiber, neutrals detergent fiber, Metabolizable energy, and digestible dry matter of camelthorn forage were measured at the end of the growing season.
Results and discussion
The results showed that by increasing salinity to 7.5 ds/m had not significant effect on the crude protein percentage, but with a further increase in salinity to 12 dS/m the crude protein was decreased (7.2%) significantly compared to control (Figure 2a). The forage fatty acids of Sarbishe were significantly higher (5.3%) than Birjand, which is due to the lower temperature of Sarbisheh region. The crude forage ash content in Birjand was significantly higher (5.3%) than Sarbishe (Figure 1a).With increasing the density from 10 to 20 plants per square meter the forage ash was increased (7.5%) significantly (Table 5). In Birjand, Metabolizable energy was increased (2.2 %) significantly with increasing plant density, but in Sarbishe, increasing density had not effect on this trait (Figure 5a). Irrigation water salinity application in both places and ecotypes studied was not significant effect on the metabolizable energy of camelthorn forage. Voshmgir ecotype in Birjand had significantly (11.4%) more acid detergent fiber than Korond ecotype, but the difference between these ecotypes was not significant in Sarbishe (Table 7). With increasing plant density in Birjand, the value of acid detergent fiber was decreased (7.9%) significantly but the difference between two plant densities was not significant in Sarbishe (Figure 6). At the 12 dS/m irrigation water salinity level, increasing the plant density let to a decrease (14.5%) of neutral detergent fiber, while increasing the plant density at lower irrigation water salinity levels had no effect on this trait (Table 3).
Conclusion
Although increasing the irrigation water salinity led to a significant reduction in camelthorn forage protein, but the amount of protein obtained at 12 dS/m irrigation water salinity (12.29%) was also acceptable. High irrigation water salinity levels in both ecotypes and locations did not lead to a significant reduction in forage metabolizable energy, so it is possible to produce adequate quality forage by cultivation camelthorn with saline water. Korond Ecotype was more suitable for cultivation in Birjand and Voshmgir ecotype was more suitable for cultivation in Sarbishe and produced better forage in these locations. In saline conditions, it is better to cultivate camelthorn with high plant density, because in this case, the amount of forage fiber will decrease and the forage quality will increase.

Keywords

• Acid Detergent Fiber
• Crude Protein
• Halophytic Plant
• Neutral Detergent Fiber

20.1001.1.22287604.1402.16.4.8.5

Main Subjects

• Physiology of crops under stress conditions