Root Growth and Nutrient Uptake in Mungbean

Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L) Wilczek)is a pulse crop under leguminous species, grown principally for its protein rich edible seeds. In Bangladesh, due to competition with main crop rice, mungbean cultivation is shifted to marginal lands with low fertility. There is urgent need to identify genotypes that would give optimum yield under nutrient stress environment. On nutrient deficient soils, traditional approach is to change the soil to fit the plant i.e fertilizers and other soil amendments are applied to increase soil fertility and/or to make soil nutrients available for plants' uptake. The exploitation of plant genetic variations to increase the efficiency with which plants absorb and utilize the nutrients has been increasingly emerging as an alternative approach towards low nutrient environments.From the results of series of three experiments it may be said that wide diversity in mungbean genotypes were observed in adaptation under sub-optimal and optimal nutrient environments, which could be exploited for screening high yielding genotypes that would best fit in low nutrient environments. Genotypes that fit specific level of N is urgent.GK3 and IPSA25 may be the target genotypes.