Enhancement of Fixation Nitrogen in Food Legumes

Abstract

Increasing the capability of nitrogen fixation in legumes is crucial because the population has been risen dramatically and predicted to be doubled by 2050. In order to feed this high population, food productivity needs to be increased. A solution to overcome this problem is through improvement of crop productivity by applying fertilizer. However, the application of fertilizer such as nitrogen is over the recommended amount and the cost is high at approximately $US 40 billion per year. Therefore, legumes are important in order to minimize the cost and enhance soil fertility through nitrogen fixation (nodulation). To achieve high nitrogen fixation, agriculture managements such as minimum tillage, breeding programs and induced mutants have been developed. In breeding program, it was found that BT-477 had high nitrogen fixation and drought tolerant based on selection among 7 common bean genotypes. Induced mutants were applied by soaking swollen seeds in EMS and resulted to higher number of nodules (10x).