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Chicory is a herbaceous, perennial, edible plant from the Genus Chicorium of the Family Asteraceae. In Romania, chicory is known mainly for its medicinal uses due to its high content of diuretic and laxative, hypoglycaemic, anti-thyroid and depurative substances. Its particular resistance to climate conditions, particularly prolonged droughts, and its high nutritive value have determined the introduction into cultivation of chicory in different fodder crop structures, particularly in moisture-deficit areas, where it is cultivated both in pure culture and in different temporary grassland mixtures. Chicory is a herbaceous, perennial, edible plant from the Genus Chicorium of the Family Asteraceae. It has been known ever since Ancient times: in Ancient Egypt, it was cultivated as a medicinal plant and was used to treat liver and bile, and kidney diseases. Nowadays, chicory root is a very popular coffee surrogate and its aerial parts are used in medicine and gastronomy (basal leaves, slightly bitter, are used in salads). Chicory is native from North Africa, Europe and Asia; it can be seen in different ecological areas, but it is spread mainly in grasslands and in haymaking fields, in uncultivated areas, from the plain area to the hill and mountain areas. In Romania, chicory is known mainly for its medicinal uses due to its high content of diuretic and laxative, hypoglycaemic, anti-thyroid and depurative substances. Though very frequent in the spontaneous flora, chicory is still very little known in Romania as a forage crop. Its particular resistance to climate conditions, particularly prolonged drought, and its high nutritive value (superior to other well-known fodder species such as alfalfa, cock's foot, and clover) determined its introduction in different fodder crop structures, particularly in moist-deficit areas, where it is cultivated both in monoculture and in different temporary grassland mixtures. The last decades, the cultivation of forage chicory has spread to all Mediterranean countries as well as to New Zealand and Australia, U.S.A. and Canada, France, Italy, India, and China (SANDERSON et al., 2001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present agricultural crop structure is dominated by grains (48%) and by technical plants (21%), detrimental to legumes that share only 11% of the cultivated arable area on Earth. If the area cultivated with legumes doubled, the necessary nitrogen fertilisers would reduce with 50% and production costs would reduce with 30%. The increase of areas cultivated with legumes would also balance the protein balance due to a larger amount of vegetal protein. The present paper points out the impact of nitrogen fertilisation on the nodulation capacity and on atmospheric nitrogen fixation in fodder peas (Pisum arvense L.). Research in the field of nitrogen fixation has pointed out the complexity of the impact of environmental nitrogen taken over by the plants on atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Legumes use nitrogen under nitric form (NO3-), as a result of the oxidation of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+) from the mineral fertilisers of from organic nitrogen. These two sources of nitrogen used by the plants (NO3- and fixed N2) are strongly dependent on the plant species, on the bacterial pool and on the environmental factors. Literature presents a consolidated scientific opinion concerning the impact of mineral nitrogen on biological nitrogen fixation: an increase of the concentration of nitrate or ammonium correlates with a decrease of the legume nodulation activity (DAVIDSON and ROBSON, 1986; EAGLESHAM, 1989). Following this work resulted in the following conclusions:Research in the field of nitrogen fixation points out the complexity of the impact of the nitrogen taken over by the plants from the environment on atmospheric nitrogen fixation. Legumes use nitrogen under nitric form (NO3-) as a result of the oxidation of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+) from mineral fertilisers or from organic nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilisation also impact TN and RP plant content. Daily nitrogen fixation decreases from 0.60 mg/plant/day in the control variant to 0.05 mg/plant/day in the variant treated with N100, while the nitrogen fixation rate in relation to dry matter varies between 14.57 mg/g DM and 1.79 mg/g DM in the variant fertilised with N100. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]