Allelopathic effects of leaf powder from selected agroforestry tree species on the germination, growth, and yield of staple crops in a semiarid region
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Agroforestry (AF) systems improve ecological interactions and reduce environmental stresses in semiarid regions, thereby improving food security and livelihood. While many AF trees benefit crop growth, some may have inhibitory effects. Hence, assessing tree-crop interactions is essential to optimizing AF practices in semiarid regions. This study examines the allelopathic effects of Dodonaea angustifolia and Populus deltoides leaf powder on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) germination, growth, and yield. A pot experiment was conducted in Ganta Afeshum district, northern Ethiopia, using four concentrations of leaf powder (50, 100, 150, and 200 g per pot) mixed with soil, alongside a control (without leaf powder). Wheat germination and yield decreased by 10% and 15%, and 16 and 13%, respectively, as the concentrations of D. angustifolia and P. deltoides leaf powder increased to 200 g. Similarly, the addition of 200 g of D. angustifolia and P. deltoides leaf powder reduced barley germination by 13% and 14%, and its yield by 18% and 15%, respectively. These findings suggest that integrating D. angustifolia and P. deltoides into AF systems may reduce wheat and barley productivity in semiarid regions. Further long-term field studies are needed to confirm and expand upon these findings.
Date Issued
2025-07-01
Date Acceptance
2025-04-29
Citation
Discover Applied Sciences, 2025, 7 (7)
ISSN
3004-9261
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Discover Applied Sciences
Volume
7
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Subjects
<italic>Dodonaea angustifolia</italic>
<italic>Populus deltoides</italic>
Allelopathy
Crop yield
EUCALYPTUS
EXTRACTS
Germination inhibition
Leaf powder
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Semiarid agroforestry
WHEAT
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
715
Date Publish Online
2025-07-01