Amenability of Indigenous Genotypes of Cabbage to Scavenge and Accumulate Nitrogen: Importance of Staggered Application and Root Morphology

Injudicious use of chemical fertilizers particularly nitrogen to crops has increased dramatically in the last half-century and, therefore, identifying crop varieties with improved nitrogen efficiency is urgent for sustainable development. In this study, a pot experiment was conducted to screen the intrinsic nitrogen efficiency of eleven cabbage genotypes on the basis of various morpho-physiological and biochemical parameters related to nitrogen metabolism. High genotypic variation was found in nitrogen metabolizing enzymes. A significant variation in nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthase activity was found between contrasting (low and high) nitrogen efficient genotypes in all the nitrogen treatments. The experimental data were subjected to Principal component analysis and Agglomerate hierarchical clustering. Based on the data, Early Golden Acre and Pusa Drumhead were screened as low and high nitrogen efficiency genotypes respectively. Our study identifies low and high nitrogen efficient genotypes in cabbage which can be used in breeding programs and could help in addressing the problem of nitrate pollution in the environment and also could lessen the economic burden of fertilizers on farmers.