Evaluation of Cotton Stalk Biochar Use Efficiency on Cotton Yield in Zambia

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Abdelmoghny, Keshav R. Kranthi, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4476943/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Growing cotton in acidic soils under drought conditions is a critical issue for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Arid Regions. The Biochar is a soil amendment to enhance soil properties like; water-holding capacity and as a source of nutritional elements. Therefore, the prime focus is improving soil health without decreasing yield productivity from a unit area in a sustainable manner. The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of Biochar application on the cotton yield of the commercial variety CDT V in comparison with other fertilizers such as manure and synthetic fertilizers under combined acidity, high temperature and drought stresses in Magoye, Zambia during the two growing seasons of 2021/22 and 2022/23. The results indicated that the acidic soils under drought stress had a negative effect on cotton productivity. The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for treatment, years and their interaction for plant height and cotton yield. The observed results showed that the highest seed cotton yield and lint was 1888.92 and 868.90 kg/ha obtained from Biochar plus synthetic fertilizer treatment followed by Biochar plus manure produced 1691.85 and 778.25 kg/ha for seed cotton and lint yield, respectively. The highest partial fertilizer productivity decreased with increasing fertilizer dose. Also, the Principle Componet Analysis ( PCA ) showed acute angle between variables with long arms, which indicated highly significant positive correlation between five traits. Generally, Biochar combined with synthetic fertilizers could improve soil fertility leading to increased cotton productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. Biochar Cotton Stalks cotton yield partial fertilizer productivity drought acidity. Figures Figure 1 INTRODUCTION Upland Cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) is an essential economic commodity for millions of more than 200,000 small-scale of Zambian cotton farmers. The cotton production plays an important role in the economy of both agricultural and industrial sectors. Despite this importance of cotton production in Zambia,it is characterized by low productivity due to biotic and abiotic stresses coupled with poor agricultural practices. However, abiotic stress like; soil acidity, high temperature, low inherent soil fertility and drought stress are the main factors restricting cotton production and sustainable agricultural development in south east Africa. Cotton is the main fibre crop in Zambia that earns over 40 million dollars in forex earnings. Cotton has low yields in Zambia ranged from 300kg to 600kg per hectare when the actual potential of the varieties in the country is above 2500kg per hectare ( ICAC, 2023 ). One of the major factors affecting low yield is abiotic stress and the lack of proper fertile soils. Soil fertility can be enhanced by the use of both organic and inorganic fertilizers. Zambian farmers did not apply fertilizers due to its high price for smallholder farmers. The implication of this finding is crucial considering that approximately 30% of the world's soils are acidic, including more than 50% of potential arable land. Shitumbanuma et al ., 2015 reported that most of the soils in Zambia are acidic, that makes most of the essential nutrients unavailable for the cotton plant. So, the cheep solution for the Zambian farmers is using organic manures and Biochar fertilizers. The Zambian agricultural policy is focusing on improving soil fertility for the sustainability and increased production systems approach. This improvement requires the integration of sustainable land management (SLM) measures and added organic matter to the soil will lead to increasing carbon stock whose depletion leads to soil degradation. Recently, many studies have explained the sustainable management of soil fertility. These techniques involves use of different types of organic matter like; compost, manure crop residues, green manure, fertilizer micro-dosing, etc. which, led to the improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. Also, the benefits to cotton nutrient content, growth, yields, productivity, and economic benefits ( Tovihoudji et al . 2022 and Li et al ., 2023 ). Biochar, “green charcoal”, is a result of the slow pyrolysis of plant biomass (straw) in a under hypoxia or anaerobic conditions at 300–1000 ℃, which produces a product with very high carbon content. Biochar is an economical and efficient soil conditioner to improve the pH and bioavailability of soil nutrients, when mixed with organic or mineral fertilizer ( Rutigliano et al ., 2014 ). Soil pH between 5.4 and 6.9 were shown to be the best for cotton production ( Sharry, 2019 ). Generally, applying Biochar to not very fertile, moderate fertile or degraded soils has a positive effect on improving soil environment and enhances crop yields rather than healthy fertile soil ( Akhtar et al ., 2014 ). Addition of Biochar to low fertility soils has positive effects on agricultural systems. Firstly, benefits of Biochar on soil physical properties are; it enhances water holding capacity, decreases bulk density, increases soil porosity in the no mulching zones, saturated soil water content, field capacity, planar soil water storage, and improves water retention and crop growth ( Liang et al ., 2021 ). Secondly, it enhances chemical soil properties; increases nutrient content, increases soil organic carbon ( Xiao et al ., 2016 ), enhances nutrient components such as soil mineral N content (ammonium, nitrate and total nitrogen) and dissolved organic carbon. 4.0 t / ha of Biochar application dose (BCAR) has significantly improved soil physical-chemical properties of cotton fields ( Karthik et al ., 2019 ). Thirdly, decreasing the difference between day and night soil temperatures by 0.66 to 1.39 ◦ C, ( Liu et al ., 2018 ) and mitigated some of the “pulse” effects of rainfall on emissions ( Maucieri et al ., 2017 ). Fourthly, biochar improves soil quality and significantly increases root growth and crop production by 10%. Hossain et al ., 2020 found that addition of Biochar increases the availability of potassium by slowing down the process of leaching from the soil, and increases nitrogen retention by reducing leaching and gas emissions. On the other hand, Biochar is not a fertilizer and application of too much Biochar can injure plants, possibly by increasing soil alkalinity. Also, rich soils in organic matter can temporarily reduce nitrogen levels because microbes will out-compete plants in sequestering this nutrient. Many studies have shown that too much Biochar is harmful to plants and soil. You can't correct this problem without removing the soil and may be more beneficial for acidic soil where the increase in pH is desirable rather than alkaline soils which have high pH. Li et al ., 2023 reported that the Biochar application rate/amount/dose is a very important parameter, due to its effect on crop growth, yields and productions to a high extent. All methods for Biochar production required the use of wood chippers. However, large chunks of Biochar should be crushed before adding to soil. The physi-cochemical properties of test Biochar were found as, pH = 8.78, organic carbon (OC) = 281.33 g kg − 1 , total nitrogen (TN) = 7.49 g kg − 1 , ammonium (AN) = 1.59 mg kg − 1 , nitrate (NN) = 24.33 mg kg − 1 , available phosphorus (AP) = 1.38 mg kg − 1 , available potassium (AK) = 4.62 g kg − 1 . Due to the high properties of Biochar,it is increasingly being used as a fertilizer for different crops ( Ahmad et al ., 2014) . Biochar addition retains a higher N concentration in the soil; ensuring plants have less trouble with nutrient absorbing. In fact, a 2020 study found that Biochar fertilizers improved plant nitrogen absorption by 12% more than urea (the popular nitrogen fertilizer). A few ways to apply Biochar are top-dressing, tilling or hand mixing. Top dressing - simply sprinkles your charged biochar on top of the soil and wet it, is the most effective method. The amendment of Biochar significantly increased the pH of acidic soils (yellow-brown soil and fluvo-aquic soil) by 0.5 -1. However, the pH of the black soil was significantly decreased by 0.5 units. Biochar doesn't decompose. In acid soils, liming effect of Biochar enhances soil microbial diversity and its function, together with increasing caution exchange capacity and crop water availability. The objectives of the study is to test cotton stalks Biochar doses mixed with different fertilizer types over two growing seasons for impacts growth, cotton yield productivity and determine the most economical biochar application dose and type (BCAR) for commercial cotton variety CDT V in Magoye region of Zambia. MATERIALS AND METHODS CDT V ( Gossypium hirsutum L.), which is a widely planted variety in Magoye, Zambia was used in the experiment. Cotton Development Trust is located in the Southern Part of Zambia (15 o 59’S and 27 o 37’E). The region is at an altitude of 1018 m and the soil type is sandy clay loam. Seven fertilizers treatments with three replications were applied in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) during two growing seasons 2021/22 and 2022/23 as presented in Table 1 . The experimental plot size was 5.4x5 m and consisted of six rows with 90 cm inter-row and 30 cm within plants.The pH Measurements were taken from all treatments by getting a composite sample obtained 30 cm soil depth from 5 different portions within the plot.The Universal pH measuring paper strips were used to determine the soil pH. The results are shown in table 3. All agronomic and cultural practices were done manually and regularly during the two growing seasons for cotton production as recommended by the Cotton Development Trust recommendations (CDT, 2015) except, fertilizers dose. All the fertilizer treatments were applied at planting time. The sown date was 18 th and 21 st of December for the first and second growing seasons, respectively. Biochar preparation Biochar which is simply a charcoal coming from burnt biomass from any organic material,was produced in the following: - 2m x 1.5m deep cone pit was dug and the third of the cone was filled with cotton stalks. The fire was lit and extinguished so that no smoke was present. The cotton stalks were added, care was taken that the smoke did not ignite into fire by adding water for a semi-anaerobic or incomplete combustion. Once the cotton stalks were added until the top was reached. Biochar was chosen as a soil amendment due to its properties which are high caution exchange capacity, high pH, and a good liming material, acts as a sponge structure that helps hold water for plants and is a good source for humus. Studied traits The data was obtained from all the experimental plots during the two growing seasons. After two weeks of planting, plant count at emergence was established by counting the number of plants per plot. The number fruiting branches / plant (NFB/P) and plant height (Ph) in cm was recorded at opening boll stage on fifty plants randomly chosen per plot from each replicate for all treatments.At harvest from all the experimental plots; fifty bolls were collected to estimate average boll weight (BW) in grams. While, all the plots were manually harvested to estimate seed cotton yield (SCY) and lint yield (LY) which was expressed in kg/ha. Yield reduction (YR %) is the difference between yield under fertilizer treatment and control (no fertilizer) was calculated from the following equation suggested by Ahmed et al ., 2014 . YR (%) = [(yield of control – yield of treatment)/yield of control]*100. Partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) is the ratio of cotton yield to fertilization rate was estimated from the equation given by Li et al ., 2018 PFP = cotton yield / fertilizer rate. Statistical analysis Two-way analysis of variation (ANOVA) and One-way ANOVA was performed to determine the effects of the Biochar treatment, years and their interaction on five studied traits; number of fruiting branches / plant (NFB/P), plant height (Ph), number of opening bolls / plant (NB /P), seed cotton yield (kg/ha) and lint yield (kg/ha). Bartlett test was used to determine the homogeneity of error variances to determine the validity of the combined analysis of variance on the data as described by Gomez and Gomez, 1984 . Least significance differences (LSD) at 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels was used to estimate mean differences between treatments. Least significance range (LSR) at 0.05 probability level used to estimate mean differences between treatments. The means of all measured five traits were undertaken using principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the most discriminating parameter and to schematically apportion the treatments in distinct groups. All data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 20. RESULTS The cotton variety CDT V belonging to Gossypium hirsutum L., has high yield, high lint percentage (46%) and high stability in Magoye region, Zambia. The commercial cotton variety CDT V is growing under abiotic stress (acidity soil and drought stress), which has a negative effect on its growth and productivity.The pH results showed that the soils in Magoye had a pH of 5.8 (Table 3).However the addition of Biochar to the soil increased the pH (more alkaline) of the soils.A combination of Biochar with both Organic and synthetic manure kept soils within the acceptable soil pH threshold of below 6.9. Five studied yield traits and its components are considered as quantitative traits and controlled by many genes that had a great effect with environmental factors were estimated under seven fertilizers treatments (organic and synthetic) to investigate the effect and the better treatment that produce higher yield productivity. The mean squares of the two way ANOVA for the studied five traits showed highly significant differences for treatment, years and their interaction effect (treatment x years) for Number of fruiting branches / plant (NFB/P), number of bolls / plant (NB /P), plant height (Ph), seed cotton yield (SCY kg/ha) and lint yield (kg/ha) ( Table 2 ). Mean performance of the cotton variety CDT V under seven fertilizer treatments The five studied traits were measured and recorded as presented in Tables 4 and 5 under seven fertilizer treatments during the two growing seasons. Treatment 4 (2000 kg / ha Cotton stalks Biochar + 200 kg/ha Synthetic fertilizers) recorded the highest values for the five traits during the two growing seasons. Among the organic and mineral fertilizer treatment 3 (2000 kg/ha Cotton stalks Biochar + 2000 kg/ha manure) was higher than treatment 5 (200 kg/ha Synthetic fertilizers only) followed by treatment 2 (2000 kg/ha Cotton stalks Biochar + 1000 kg/ha brown maize stalks), treatment 1 (2000 kg/ha Cotton stalks Biochar), treatment 6 (2000 kg/ha Manure only) and treatment 7 (no fertilizer or control). The studied traits were highly significant (P < 0.01) and affected under different fertilizer treatments types and doses during the two seasons. The first growing season (2021/22) has highest values than the second season (2022/23) for the studied five traits. There was also a significant site by treatment x season interaction. Tovihoudji et al . 2022 found significant differences for cotton plant height, number of bolls /plant, number of fruiting branches and cotton yield affected by different biochar fertilizer treatments. During two growing seasons treatment 4 produced higher yield in terms of seed-cotton and lint yield which with an increase of 60.81% and 47.36% for seed cotton yield and lint yield during the two seasons, respectively compared to the control with no fertilizer (treatment 7). The trend of increasing seed cotton and lint yield was T4 > T3 > T5 > T2 > T1 > T6 > T7. Also, plant height, number of bolls /plant, number of fruiting branches / plant had the same trend. Partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) implies that more output or yield is being produced from a constant amount of resources or fertilizers (single input) used in the production process and it’s a measure of efficiency of input use ( Yadav, 2003 and Singh et al ., 2017 ). PFP indicates how changes of one resource (fertilizer) can affect yield productivity. Partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) values differ between the six treatments compared to the control or no fertilizer treatment (T7) as presented in Table 6 . Treatment 4 has the highest value during the two seasons. The order of the PFP depending on the fertilizer dose were T4 > T1 > T6 > T2 > T3. While, T5 showed high values 4.13 and 3.12 for the first and second season, respectively. These higher values related to the low fertilizer (200 kg /ha synthetic fertilizer (NPK) only) and T7 has zero fertilizer dose (no fertilizer). The economic value of fertilizer application unit is the value of cotton yield increase due to the quantity of fertilizer added and is greater than the cost of used fertilizer ( Yadav, 2003) . Yield reduction ratio (YR %) is the loss of crop yield due to biotic and abiotic stress or a combined factors between both stresses are still considerable despite intensive crop protection measures and progress in resistance breeding. The commercial cotton variety CDT V is cultivated under acidity soil, high temperature and drought stresses. The values of yield reduction ratio (YR %) was negative for the five traits during the two seasons compared to treatment 7 (no fertilizer or control). The negative values indicated that the yield was increased due to fertilizer additions compared to the control (treatment 7). The difference in increasing yield is due to the effect of the type and dose of fertilizers. The results found that the addition of biochar plus synthetic fertilizers (NPK) increased the total yield and decreased yield reduction. Treatment 4 has the highest negative value (-155.21%) for yield reduction followed by T3, T5, T2, T1 and T6 ( Table 6 ). The difference was highly increased between fertilizer types and doses. Some previous studies have shown that adding biochar can increase yield, plant height, number of fruiting branches / plant and number of bolls / plant ( Elangovan, 2014; Xu et al . 2016; Shen et al. 2018; Tovihoudji et al . 2022 and Li et al ., 2023). The five traits of yield and its components has highly significant and positive correlation coefficient (P < 0.01) between the studied quantitative traits under seven fertilizer treatments types and doses ( Table 7 ). Many research studied investigated the relationship between economic cotton traits, especially yield and its components ( El-Mansy et al ., 2020 ). On the basis of evaluating Zambian cotton variety CDT V under seven fertilizer treatments, principal component analysis was performed to find the most important cotton yield characteristics. In the recent years, numerous studies focused on different agronomic traits that influenced cotton yield. The present investigation was conducted to assess the relationship among five studied traits of cotton under seven fertilizer treatments. The Analysis of the Eigenvalue in Table 8 showed that first principle components (PC1) contributed the most variations in treatment responses. This was represented as 96.9 % with Eigenvalue of 4.846. The remaining four principle components contributed only 3 % of variability. On the basis of loading factors, the first principle component increased with the studied five traits. This implies that the increase in PC1 would increase the other variables. Similar results were obtained by Simasiku et al ., 2022 . Also, PCA biplot to investigate the linkage between traits in various cotton crop ( Abdelmoghny et al ., 2022 ). The biplot of the PCA showed that the first three vectors were concentrated in the first quadrant and only two vectors are located in the fourth quadrants. In addition, all the vectors had long arm and showed the acute angle (less than 90º) as shown in Figure 1 . The distribution of seven treatments based on PC1 and PC2 demonstrated a very distinct separation between the seven treatments. DISCUSSIONS Biochar (green charcoal) is defined as a kind of fine grained and porous matter formed after anaerobic pyrolysis of organic wastes at 450–650 ° C.In the present study, Biochar made from cotton stalks is alkaline (high pH) due to the formation of ash during the pyrolysis process which typically consists of essential ions required by the plant; Ca, Mg, K and Na carbonates ( Yuan et al., 2011) . So, using Biochar as a fertilizer reduces the need of fertilizers and improved plant growth and yield productivity ( Uzma et al ., 2015) . The high pH of biochar is useful in reclamation or increasing uptake of nutrients in acidic soils. Tovihoudji et al . 2022 found that biochar had a pH of 10.21, with concentrations of 50.03% C, 0.31% total N, and 13.76% ash. So, Biochar increased the availability of nutrients in soil under acidic soil stress condition than other soil type ( Uzma et al ., 2015 and Karthik et al ., 2020 ). The study showed that the different Biochar based treatment types and doses improved cotton growth and yield. It also showed that the addition of both Biochar and fertilizer increased the soil pH and maintained in within a threshold of below 6.9 preventing it from being too alkaline. The obtained results indicated that the seven treatments had a great effect on cotton yield productivity through increasing number of fruiting branches / plant and number of bolls / plant. The addition of Biochar improved availability of nutrient elements, concentrations of basic cations, increased availability of soil water and consequently reducing the impact of osmotic stress. Under acid soils the effect of Biochar enhances soil microbial diversity with increasing cations exchange capacity and crop water availability ( Karthik et al ., 2020 ). Elangovan, 2014 found that the cotton plant height (Ph) was increased during cotton growing stages under Biochar treatment. Also, after two years of incorporated Biochar to the soil increased number of bolls (118 bolls / m 2 ) and cotton yield (0.69 kg / m 2 ) in the second year ( Xu et al ., 2016 ). The increasing of values during 2021/22 more than the second season 2022/23 may be due the differences of a cumulative rainfall amount and temperatures during the two seasons. These results showed the higher effect of environmental factors on the quantitative traits under different Biochar treatments and types. The increase in yield attributed to the addition mineral fertilizers (NPK) required by the cotton crop plus Biochar that improve soil structure. Shen et al ., 2018 in China concluded that Biochar applications to silt loam soil, increased seed cotton yields. Biochar improves soil nutrients, physical and chemical properties, crop root growth, water retention and absorption ( Zhang et al ., 2020 ). Pandian et al ., 2016 concluded that the available nitrogen content was in the range from 158 to 178 kg / ha after incorporated biochar to the soil. Also, Biochar effects on soil microbial population are complex in nature and are mainly dependant on type and quantity of Biochar added to the soil (Lu et al. , 2018). Applying Biochar in a combination with mineral fertilizer reduced fertilizer requirement as it prevents leaching of applied nutrients. The Zambian cotton variety CDT V was cultivated under many stresses; drought, high temperature, acidity soil and no fertilizers addition that lead to yield decrease. Partial factor productivity (PFP) is a useful measure of nutrient use efficiency as it provides an integrative index that total input produced and quantifies economic output ( Yadav 2003, Singh et al. , 2017 and Li et al ., 2018 ). Partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) value depending on the fertilizer does. The results showed that higher fertilizer dose (T3) had less PFP value (0.226 and 0.163) for 2021/22 and 2022/23, respectively. On the other hand the less fertilizer dose (T5) has the highest PFP value (4.13 and 3.12 for first and second season, respectively). While, medium fertilizer dose (T4) had the highest PFP value (0.481 and 0.31), because of higher lint cotton yield. These results represented that PFP depends on two major factors; fertilizer dose and final cotton yield. The application is not economical, when the yield increased enough to pay for its cost per applied fertilizer unit ( Singh, 2004 ). Yield reduction ratio (YR %) is the loss of cotton yield due to biotic and abiotic stress. The results of the study showed that the differences were highly increased between fertilizer types and doses. Under rainfed condition the cotton production varies from 80 to 1100 kg/ha, whiles most countries having cotton yields below 600 kg/ha ( ICAC, 2023 ). The average yield productivity in Zambia is 300 kg/ha, the very low production is due to drought, soil acidity and high temperature. The differences in yields obtained between the researcher fields at the Cotton Development Trust and at the farmer fields can be explained by the farmers did not apply any fertilizers due to its expensive price. Some previous studies have shown that adding Biochar can increase yield, plant height, number of fruiting branches / plant and number of bolls / plant ( Elangovan, 2014; Xu et al . 2016; Shen et al. 2018; Tovihoudji et al . 2022 and Li et al ., 2023). The application of Biochar will decrease fertilizer need by 7%, especially in highly degraded acidic or nutrient depleted soils. Many studies suggested that addition of Biochar along with mineral fertilizers leads to better establishment and growth of crops compared to application of synthetic fertilizers alone ( Sohil et al ., 2010; Peng et al ., 2012 and Uzma et al ., 2015 ). Thus, the correlation coefficient between quantitative traits is useful in selection criteria represent a swamp of interrelationships to improve different traits. The cotton breeders used significant and positive association between traits to yield and its components. Selection of one trait will led to the improvement the other traits. Many cotton researchers reported that seed cotton yield significantly and positively correlated with number of fruiting branches / plant, number of bolls / plant, and lint yield and also between all possible pairs for investigated traits ( EL-Mansy et al ., 2020 ). Principle component analysis (PCA) is a multivariate statistical analysis used to investigate the relationship between traits and efficiently visualize the similarities between genotypes or treatments in which different factors exert strong effects on crop yield and growth. PCA is a useful technique to reduce the large data to many variables into important PCA to provide better information clearness. The results showed that the PC1 increased all the studied traits. This implies that the increasing in one variable will increase the other variables. This indicated that high selection pressure on one trait will increase the others. The long length of vectors was a contribution to the primary component. The acute angle between trait vectors showed the highly positive correlation between the studied traits. These results agreed with the highly significant positive association between five traits ( El-Mansy et al ., 2020 and Abdelmoghny et al ., 2022 ). Also, the seven treatments were distinct and illustrated the variation within treatments. Zhu et al ., 2022 used the same approach of streamlining the treatments in order to see the effect on soil fertility. Implying that where resources are limiting, phenotypic trait selection can only be employed based on these few treatments. CONCLUSION Biochar fertilizers can be just as effective as synthetic fertilizers in enhancing seed cotton yield. There is little difference between the yields obtained from the latter. Furthermore, in order to effectively see the difference in treatment effects, it’s better to use treatments manure, Biochar and Synthetic fertilizer as separate treatments. New varieties with a broad resistance to diseases and lodging, and higher nitrogen use efficiency are required. In addition, based on the comparison between different fertilizers combination (biochar only, biochar + mineral fertilizer, organic only, mineral fertilizer only), the increase in cotton yield was highly significant by applying biochar + mineral fertilizer (NPK), but the amount of biochar should be appropriate. The highest PFP decreased with increase in fertilizer dose. PCA was performed to determine the relationship between various traits of CDT V cotton variety. The studied traits had highly significant positive correlation under seven fertilizer treatments. Also, PC1 contributed to the five traits based on the interaction between seven treatments. Declarations ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors acknowledge and are grateful for the project financial support from the International Trade Centre and led to the idea of setting up this experiment.Additionally, Technical support from the International Cotton Advisory Committee and Cotton Development Trust wholly appreciated. Authors Contributions Martin L.Simasiku initiated the conceptual framework of the experiment and laid out the design. Furthermore, he conducted the experiments at Cotton Development Trust. Ahmed A,analyzed the the data and reviewed the manuscript. Keshav K, and Sandhya K, further reviewed the manuscripts for improvements. All the authors approved the final manuscript. Funding Not applicable. Availability of Data and materials Additional raw data other than that in the present article,is available upon request from the corresponding author.Nevertheless,all related data to the experiments is included in the present study. Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable. Consent for Publication Not applicable. Competing Interests The authors declare no competing interests. References Ahmed, A. F.; Yu, H.; Yang, X.; Jiang, W. 2014. Deficit irrigation affects growth, yield, vitamin C content, and irrigation water use efficiency of hot pepper grown in soilless culture. Hort. 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Food Syst. 6:1036133. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1036133. Uzma, Y., Bokhari,T. Z. Qayyum, M. F., Malik, S. A., Majeed, Shah, M. H. R., and A. Tariq. 2015. Biochemical Characterization of Cotton Stalks Biochar Suggests its Role in Soil as Amendment and Decontamination. American-Eurasian J. Agric. & Environ. Sci., 15 (11): 2304-2311. Xiao, Q., Zhu, L., Shen, Y., Li, S., 2016. Sensitivity of soil water retention and availability to biochar addition in rainfed semi-arid farmland during a three-year field experiment. Field Crop. Res. 196, 284–293. Xu P, Sun CX, Ye XZ, Xiao WD, Zhang Q, Wang Q. 2016. The effect of biochar and crop straws on heavy metal bioavailability and plant accumulation in a Cd and Pb polluted soil." Ecotoxicology and environmental safety. 132:94-100. Yadav, R. L. 2003. Assessing on-farm efficiency and economics of fertilizer N, P and K in rice-wheat systems of India. Field Crops Research 18: 39-51. Yuan, J.H., R.K. Xu and H. Zhang, 2011. The forms of alkalis in the biochar produced from crop residues at different temperatures. Bioresour, Technol., 102: 3488-3497. Zhang, Z., Dong, X., Wang, S. and Pu, X. 2020. Benefits of organic manure combined with biochar amendments to cotton root growth and yield under continuous cropping systems in Xinjiang, China. Scientific Reports, 10:4718. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61118-8. Tables Tables 1 to 8 are available in the Supplementary Files section Supplementary Files Tables.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4476943","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":321298505,"identity":"0e5ac516-768f-4aaa-9e32-01bf5aa3c13e","order_by":0,"name":"Martin Lubinda Simasiku","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9ElEQVRIie2PMYoCMRSGE7bNEfYKgjavGsaD2CQMjI22W8kQm0zjAfQQW9gslgkD2oymDWwzYUEbCy3tTKYSZBzthM3XvEf4P/48hAKBd4UiRPxUHEVu4KlsETC/UdL6oV252Yp6eah08u2hsqvss5NvrFoIHX/nhWuZRIMmBcphj7OyIFCOumopfpOfkjllnY55kyJTzJmQBOQIKesUkE7BvGhW9N4rGQF9qJyyS0DbFsXULR8EDPUfkzGYthazx3Mm3C3m2FXzXULBuBb66BadovNFZH3Qw7/z7Cv2i61Ok6hRuYPVSfps3NN/JRwIBAL/gyv1bm8qp4imrQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9276-7652","institution":"Cotton Development Trust","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Martin","middleName":"Lubinda","lastName":"Simasiku","suffix":""},{"id":321298506,"identity":"eb4b10ee-0116-43ed-bc04-0f672a776587","order_by":1,"name":"Ahmed M. Abdelmoghny","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Cotton Research Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ahmed","middleName":"M.","lastName":"Abdelmoghny","suffix":""},{"id":321298507,"identity":"6ae8cb51-0d3f-4065-a219-eb168b3d5baf","order_by":2,"name":"Keshav R. Kranthi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"International Cotton Advisory Committee","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Keshav","middleName":"R.","lastName":"Kranthi","suffix":""},{"id":321298508,"identity":"f5297651-42c8-4607-8da5-ef0db5f0243a","order_by":3,"name":"Sandhya Kranthi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"International Cotton Advisory Committee","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sandhya","middleName":"","lastName":"Kranthi","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-05-25 13:19:46","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4476943/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4476943/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":60959431,"identity":"07ec1e1c-675f-47fc-9685-09954e6ba311","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-24 04:16:55","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":26913,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResponse of studied five traits under seven fertilizer treatments on CDT V cotton variety\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4476943/v1/1933a2590d969e3d974c4982.png"},{"id":61549750,"identity":"5f4879c3-f124-45cf-9752-331e5b2b2739","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-08-01 06:08:11","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":905239,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4476943/v1/45590ccc-547b-4388-aa7f-8cf4e306b678.pdf"},{"id":60959432,"identity":"0735c93b-29e6-4970-aff9-b13faf5c88fe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-24 04:16:55","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":36655,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Tables.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4476943/v1/51f260951861039e6c9f5a67.docx"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eEvaluation of Cotton Stalk Biochar Use Efficiency on Cotton Yield in Zambia\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[{"header":"INTRODUCTION","content":"\u003cp\u003eUpland Cotton (\u003cem\u003eGossypium hirsutum\u003c/em\u003e L.) is an essential economic commodity for millions of more than 200,000 small-scale of Zambian cotton farmers. The cotton production plays an important role in the economy of both agricultural and industrial sectors. Despite this importance of cotton production in Zambia,it is characterized by low productivity due to biotic and abiotic stresses coupled with poor agricultural practices. However, abiotic stress like; soil acidity, high temperature, low inherent soil fertility and drought stress are the main factors restricting cotton production and sustainable agricultural development in south east Africa. Cotton is the main fibre crop in Zambia that earns over 40\u0026nbsp;million dollars in forex earnings. Cotton has low yields in Zambia ranged from 300kg to 600kg per hectare when the actual potential of the varieties in the country is above 2500kg per hectare (\u003cb\u003eICAC, 2023\u003c/b\u003e). One of the major factors affecting low yield is abiotic stress and the lack of proper fertile soils. Soil fertility can be enhanced by the use of both organic and inorganic fertilizers. Zambian farmers did not apply fertilizers due to its high price for smallholder farmers. The implication of this finding is crucial considering that approximately 30% of the world's soils are acidic, including more than 50% of potential arable land. \u003cb\u003eShitumbanuma\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2015\u003c/b\u003e reported that most of the soils in Zambia are acidic, that makes most of the essential nutrients unavailable for the cotton plant. So, the cheep solution for the Zambian farmers is using organic manures and Biochar fertilizers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zambian agricultural policy is focusing on improving soil fertility for the sustainability and increased production systems approach. This improvement requires the integration of sustainable land management (SLM) measures and added organic matter to the soil will lead to increasing carbon stock whose depletion leads to soil degradation. Recently, many studies have explained the sustainable management of soil fertility. These techniques involves use of different types of organic matter like; compost, manure crop residues, green manure, fertilizer micro-dosing, etc. which, led to the improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. Also, the benefits to cotton nutrient content, growth, yields, productivity, and economic benefits (\u003cb\u003eTovihoudji\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003e2022 and Li\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2023\u003c/b\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBiochar, \u0026ldquo;green charcoal\u0026rdquo;, is a result of the slow pyrolysis of plant biomass (straw) in a under hypoxia or anaerobic conditions at 300\u0026ndash;1000 ℃, which produces a product with very high carbon content. Biochar is an economical and efficient soil conditioner to improve the pH and bioavailability of soil nutrients, when mixed with organic or mineral fertilizer (\u003cb\u003eRutigliano\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2014\u003c/b\u003e). Soil pH between 5.4 and 6.9 were shown to be the best for cotton production (\u003cb\u003eSharry, 2019\u003c/b\u003e). Generally, applying Biochar to not very fertile, moderate fertile or degraded soils has a positive effect on improving soil environment and enhances crop yields rather than healthy fertile soil (\u003cb\u003eAkhtar\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2014\u003c/b\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAddition of Biochar to low fertility soils has positive effects on agricultural systems. Firstly, benefits of Biochar on soil physical properties are; it enhances water holding capacity, decreases bulk density, increases soil porosity in the no mulching zones, saturated soil water content, field capacity, planar soil water storage, and improves water retention and crop growth (\u003cb\u003eLiang\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2021\u003c/b\u003e). Secondly, it enhances chemical soil properties; increases nutrient content, increases soil organic carbon (\u003cb\u003eXiao\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2016\u003c/b\u003e), enhances nutrient components such as soil mineral N content (ammonium, nitrate and total nitrogen) and dissolved organic carbon. 4.0 t / ha of Biochar application dose (BCAR) has significantly improved soil physical-chemical properties of cotton fields (\u003cb\u003eKarthik\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2019\u003c/b\u003e). Thirdly, decreasing the difference between day and night soil temperatures by 0.66 to 1.39\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003eC, (\u003cb\u003eLiu\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2018\u003c/b\u003e) and mitigated some of the \u0026ldquo;pulse\u0026rdquo; effects of rainfall on emissions (\u003cb\u003eMaucieri\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2017\u003c/b\u003e). Fourthly, biochar improves soil quality and significantly increases root growth and crop production by 10%. \u003cb\u003eHossain\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2020\u003c/b\u003e found that addition of Biochar increases the availability of potassium by slowing down the process of leaching from the soil, and increases nitrogen retention by reducing leaching and gas emissions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, Biochar is not a fertilizer and application of too much Biochar can injure plants, possibly by increasing soil alkalinity. Also, rich soils in organic matter can temporarily reduce nitrogen levels because microbes will out-compete plants in sequestering this nutrient. Many studies have shown that too much Biochar is harmful to plants and soil. You can't correct this problem without removing the soil and may be more beneficial for acidic soil where the increase in pH is desirable rather than alkaline soils which have high pH. \u003cb\u003eLi\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2023\u003c/b\u003e reported that the Biochar application rate/amount/dose is a very important parameter, due to its effect on crop growth, yields and productions to a high extent.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAll methods for Biochar production required the use of wood chippers. However, large chunks of Biochar should be crushed before adding to soil. The physi-cochemical properties of test Biochar were found as, pH\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;8.78, organic carbon (OC)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;281.33 g kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, total nitrogen (TN)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;7.49 g kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, ammonium (AN)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.59 mg kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, nitrate (NN)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;24.33 mg kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, available phosphorus (AP)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.38 mg kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e, available potassium (AK)\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;4.62 g kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e. Due to the high properties of Biochar,it is increasingly being used as a fertilizer for different crops (\u003cb\u003eAhmad\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2014)\u003c/b\u003e. Biochar addition retains a higher N concentration in the soil; ensuring plants have less trouble with nutrient absorbing. In fact, a 2020 study found that Biochar fertilizers improved plant nitrogen absorption by 12% more than urea (the popular nitrogen fertilizer). A few ways to apply Biochar are top-dressing, tilling or hand mixing. Top dressing - simply sprinkles your charged biochar on top of the soil and wet it, is the most effective method. The amendment of Biochar significantly increased the pH of acidic soils (yellow-brown soil and fluvo-aquic soil) by 0.5 -1. However, the pH of the black soil was significantly decreased by 0.5 units. Biochar doesn't decompose. In acid soils, liming effect of Biochar enhances soil microbial diversity and its function, together with increasing caution exchange capacity and crop water availability.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe objectives of the study is to test cotton stalks Biochar doses mixed with different fertilizer types over two growing seasons for impacts growth, cotton yield productivity and determine the most economical biochar application dose and type (BCAR) for commercial cotton variety CDT V in Magoye region of Zambia.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"MATERIALS AND METHODS","content":"\u003cp\u003eCDT V (\u003cem\u003eGossypium hirsutum\u003c/em\u003e L.), which is a widely planted variety in Magoye, Zambia was used in the experiment. Cotton Development\u0026nbsp;Trust\u0026nbsp;is located in the Southern Part of Zambia (15\u003csup\u003eo\u003c/sup\u003e59\u0026rsquo;S and 27\u003csup\u003eo\u003c/sup\u003e37\u0026rsquo;E). The region is at an altitude of 1018 m and the soil type is sandy clay loam.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;Seven fertilizers treatments with three replications were applied in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) during two growing seasons 2021/22 and 2022/23 as presented in \u003cstrong\u003eTable 1\u003c/strong\u003e. The experimental plot size was 5.4x5 m and consisted of six rows with 90 cm inter-row and 30 cm within plants.The pH Measurements were taken from all treatments by getting a composite sample obtained 30 cm soil depth from 5 different portions within the plot.The Universal pH measuring paper strips were used to determine the soil pH. The results are shown in table 3. All agronomic and cultural practices were done manually and regularly during the two growing seasons for cotton production as recommended by the Cotton Development Trust recommendations (CDT, 2015) except, fertilizers dose. All the fertilizer treatments were applied at planting time. The sown date was 18\u003csup\u003eth\u003c/sup\u003e and 21\u003csup\u003est\u003c/sup\u003e of December for the first and second growing seasons, respectively. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBiochar preparation\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBiochar which is simply a charcoal coming from burnt biomass from any organic material,was produced in the following: - 2m x 1.5m deep cone pit was dug and the third of the cone was filled with cotton stalks. The fire was lit and extinguished so that no smoke was present. The cotton stalks were added, care was taken that the smoke did not ignite into fire by adding water for a semi-anaerobic or incomplete combustion. Once the cotton stalks were added until the top was reached. Biochar was chosen as a soil amendment due to its properties which are high caution exchange capacity, high pH, and a good liming material, acts as a sponge structure that helps hold water for plants and is a good source for humus.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStudied traits\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe data was obtained from all the experimental plots during the two growing seasons. After two weeks of planting, plant count at emergence was established by counting the number of plants per plot. The number fruiting branches / plant (NFB/P) and plant height (Ph) in cm was recorded at opening boll stage on fifty plants randomly chosen per plot from each replicate for all treatments.At harvest from all the experimental plots; fifty bolls were collected to estimate average boll weight (BW) in grams. While, all the plots were manually harvested to estimate seed cotton yield (SCY) and lint yield (LY) which was expressed in kg/ha.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYield reduction (YR %) is the difference between yield under fertilizer treatment and control (no fertilizer) was calculated from the following equation suggested by \u003cstrong\u003eAhmed \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2014\u003c/strong\u003e. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYR (%) = [(yield of control \u0026ndash; yield of treatment)/yield of control]*100.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePartial fertilizer productivity (PFP) is the ratio of cotton yield to fertilization rate was estimated from the equation given by \u003cstrong\u003eLi \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2018\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003ePFP = cotton yield / fertilizer rate.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStatistical analysis\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo-way analysis of variation (ANOVA) and One-way ANOVA was performed to determine the effects of the Biochar treatment, years and their interaction on five studied traits; number of fruiting branches / plant (NFB/P), plant height (Ph), number of opening bolls / plant (NB /P), seed cotton yield (kg/ha) and lint yield (kg/ha).\u0026nbsp;Bartlett test was used to determine the homogeneity of error variances to determine the validity of the combined analysis of variance on the data as described by \u003cstrong\u003eGomez and Gomez, 1984\u003c/strong\u003e. Least significance differences (LSD) at 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels was used to estimate mean differences between treatments. Least significance range (LSR) at 0.05 probability level used to estimate mean differences between treatments. The means of all measured five traits were undertaken using principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the most discriminating parameter and to schematically apportion the treatments in distinct groups. All data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 20.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"RESULTS","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe cotton variety CDT V belonging to \u003cem\u003eGossypium hirsutum\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003eL., has high yield, high lint percentage (46%) and high stability in Magoye region, Zambia. The commercial cotton variety CDT V is growing under abiotic stress (acidity soil and drought stress), which has a negative effect on its growth and productivity.The pH results showed that the soils in Magoye had a pH of 5.8 (Table 3).However the addition of Biochar to the soil increased the pH (more alkaline) of the soils.A combination of Biochar with both Organic and synthetic manure kept soils within the acceptable soil pH threshold of below 6.9. Five studied yield traits and its components are considered as quantitative traits and controlled by many genes that had a great effect with environmental factors were estimated under seven fertilizers treatments (organic and synthetic) to investigate the effect and the better treatment that produce higher yield productivity. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mean squares of the two way ANOVA for the studied five traits showed highly significant differences for treatment, years and their interaction effect (treatment x years) for Number of fruiting branches / plant (NFB/P), number of bolls / plant (NB /P), plant height (Ph), seed cotton yield (SCY kg/ha) and lint yield (kg/ha) (\u003cstrong\u003eTable 2\u003c/strong\u003e).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMean performance of the cotton variety CDT V under seven fertilizer treatments\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe five studied traits were measured and recorded as presented in \u003cstrong\u003eTables 4 and 5\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eunder seven fertilizer treatments during the two growing seasons. Treatment 4 (2000 kg / ha Cotton stalks Biochar + 200 kg/ha Synthetic fertilizers) recorded the highest values for the five traits during the two growing seasons. Among the organic and mineral fertilizer treatment 3 (2000 kg/ha Cotton stalks Biochar + 2000 kg/ha manure) was higher than treatment 5 (200 kg/ha Synthetic fertilizers only) followed by treatment 2 (2000 kg/ha Cotton stalks Biochar + 1000 kg/ha brown maize stalks), treatment 1 (2000 kg/ha Cotton stalks Biochar), treatment 6 (2000 kg/ha Manure only) and treatment 7 (no fertilizer or control). The studied traits were highly significant (P \u0026lt; 0.01) and affected under different fertilizer treatments types and doses during the two seasons. The first growing season (2021/22) has highest values than the second season (2022/23) for the studied five traits. There was also a significant site by treatment x season interaction. \u003cstrong\u003eTovihoudji \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e. 2022\u003c/strong\u003e found significant differences for cotton plant height, number of bolls /plant, number of fruiting branches and cotton yield affected by different biochar fertilizer treatments.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring two growing seasons treatment 4 produced higher yield in terms of seed-cotton and lint yield which with an increase of 60.81% and 47.36% for seed cotton yield and lint yield during the two seasons, respectively compared to the control with no fertilizer (treatment 7). \u0026nbsp;The trend of increasing seed cotton and lint yield was T4 \u0026gt; T3 \u0026gt; T5 \u0026gt; T2 \u0026gt; T1 \u0026gt; T6 \u0026gt; T7. Also, plant height, number of bolls /plant, number of fruiting branches / plant had the same trend.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePartial fertilizer productivity (PFP) implies that more output or yield is being produced from a constant amount of resources or fertilizers (single input) used in the\u0026nbsp;production\u0026nbsp;process and it\u0026rsquo;s a measure of efficiency of input use (\u003cstrong\u003eYadav, 2003 and Singh \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e.,\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2017\u003c/strong\u003e). PFP indicates how changes of one resource (fertilizer) can affect yield productivity. Partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) values differ between the six treatments compared to the control or no fertilizer treatment (T7) as presented in \u003cstrong\u003eTable 6\u003c/strong\u003e. Treatment 4 has the highest value during the two seasons. The order of the PFP depending on the fertilizer dose were T4 \u0026gt; T1 \u0026gt; T6 \u0026gt; T2 \u0026gt; T3. While, T5 showed high values 4.13 and 3.12 for the first and second season, respectively. These higher values related to the low fertilizer (200 kg /ha synthetic fertilizer (NPK) only) and T7 has zero fertilizer dose (no fertilizer). The economic value of fertilizer application unit is the value of cotton yield increase due to the quantity of fertilizer added and is greater than the cost of used fertilizer (\u003cstrong\u003eYadav, 2003)\u003c/strong\u003e. \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYield reduction ratio (YR %) is the loss of crop yield due to biotic and abiotic stress or a combined factors between both stresses are still considerable despite intensive crop protection measures and progress in resistance breeding. The commercial cotton variety CDT V is cultivated under acidity soil, high temperature and drought stresses. The values of yield reduction ratio (YR %) was negative for the five traits during the two seasons compared to treatment 7 (no fertilizer or control). The negative values indicated that the yield was increased due to fertilizer additions compared to the control (treatment 7). The difference in increasing yield is due to the effect of the type and dose of fertilizers. The results found that the addition of biochar plus synthetic fertilizers (NPK) increased the total yield and decreased yield reduction. Treatment 4 has the highest negative value (-155.21%) for yield reduction followed by T3, T5, T2, T1 and T6 (\u003cstrong\u003eTable 6\u003c/strong\u003e). The difference was highly increased between fertilizer types and doses. Some previous studies have shown that adding biochar can increase yield, plant height, number of fruiting branches / plant and number of bolls / plant (\u003cstrong\u003eElangovan, 2014;\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eXu \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e. 2016;\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eShen \u003cem\u003eet al.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e2018; Tovihoudji \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e. 2022 and Li \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2023).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe five traits of yield and its components has highly significant and positive correlation coefficient (P \u0026lt; 0.01) between the studied quantitative traits under seven fertilizer treatments types and doses (\u003cstrong\u003eTable 7\u003c/strong\u003e). Many research studied investigated the relationship between economic cotton traits, especially yield and its components (\u003cstrong\u003eEl-Mansy \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2020\u003c/strong\u003e). \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the basis of evaluating Zambian cotton variety CDT V under seven fertilizer treatments, principal component analysis was performed to find the most important cotton yield characteristics. In the recent years, numerous studies focused on different agronomic traits that influenced cotton yield. The present investigation was conducted to assess the relationship among five studied traits of cotton under seven fertilizer treatments. The Analysis of the Eigenvalue in \u003cstrong\u003eTable 8\u003c/strong\u003e showed that first principle components (PC1) contributed the most variations in treatment responses. This was represented as 96.9 % with Eigenvalue of 4.846. The remaining four principle components contributed only 3 % of variability. On the basis of loading factors, the first principle component increased with the studied five traits. This implies that the increase in PC1 would increase the other variables. Similar results were obtained by \u003cstrong\u003eSimasiku \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2022\u003c/strong\u003e. Also, PCA biplot to investigate the linkage between traits in various cotton crop (\u003cstrong\u003eAbdelmoghny \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2022\u003c/strong\u003e). The biplot of the PCA showed that the first three vectors were concentrated in the first quadrant and only two vectors are located in the fourth quadrants. In addition, all the vectors had long arm and showed the acute angle (less than 90\u0026ordm;) as shown in \u003cstrong\u003eFigure 1\u003c/strong\u003e. The distribution of seven treatments based on PC1 and PC2 demonstrated a very distinct separation between the seven treatments.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"DISCUSSIONS","content":"\u003cp\u003eBiochar (green charcoal) is defined as a kind of fine grained and porous matter formed after anaerobic pyrolysis of organic wastes at 450\u0026ndash;650\u003csup\u003e\u0026deg;\u003c/sup\u003eC.In the present study, Biochar made from cotton stalks is alkaline (high pH) due to the formation of ash during the pyrolysis process which typically consists of essential ions required by the plant; Ca, Mg, K and Na carbonates (\u003cb\u003eYuan et al., 2011)\u003c/b\u003e. So, using Biochar as a fertilizer reduces the need of fertilizers and improved plant growth and yield productivity (\u003cb\u003eUzma\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2015)\u003c/b\u003e. The high pH of biochar is useful in reclamation or increasing uptake of nutrients in acidic soils. \u003cb\u003eTovihoudji\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003e2022\u003c/b\u003e found that biochar had a pH of 10.21, with concentrations of 50.03% C, 0.31% total N, and 13.76% ash. So, Biochar increased the availability of nutrients in soil under acidic soil stress condition than other soil type (\u003cb\u003eUzma\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2015 and Karthik\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2020\u003c/b\u003e). The study showed that the different Biochar based treatment types and doses improved cotton growth and yield. It also showed that the addition of both Biochar and fertilizer increased the soil pH and maintained in within a threshold of below 6.9 preventing it from being too alkaline.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe obtained results indicated that the seven treatments had a great effect on cotton yield productivity through increasing number of fruiting branches / plant and number of bolls / plant. The addition of Biochar improved availability of nutrient elements, concentrations of basic cations, increased availability of soil water and consequently reducing the impact of osmotic stress. Under acid soils the effect of Biochar enhances soil microbial diversity with increasing cations exchange capacity and crop water availability (\u003cb\u003eKarthik\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2020\u003c/b\u003e). \u003cb\u003eElangovan, 2014\u003c/b\u003e found that the cotton plant height (Ph) was increased during cotton growing stages under Biochar treatment. Also, after two years of incorporated Biochar to the soil increased number of bolls (118 bolls / m\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e) and cotton yield (0.69 kg / m\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e) in the second year (\u003cb\u003eXu\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2016\u003c/b\u003e). The increasing of values during 2021/22 more than the second season 2022/23 may be due the differences of a cumulative rainfall amount and temperatures during the two seasons. These results showed the higher effect of environmental factors on the quantitative traits under different Biochar treatments and types. The increase in yield attributed to the addition mineral fertilizers (NPK) required by the cotton crop plus Biochar that improve soil structure. \u003cb\u003eShen\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2018\u003c/b\u003e in China concluded that Biochar applications to silt loam soil, increased seed cotton yields. Biochar improves soil nutrients, physical and chemical properties, crop root growth, water retention and absorption (\u003cb\u003eZhang\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2020\u003c/b\u003e). \u003cb\u003ePandian\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2016\u003c/b\u003e concluded that the available nitrogen content was in the range from 158 to 178 kg / ha after incorporated biochar to the soil. Also, Biochar effects on soil microbial population are complex in nature and are mainly dependant on type and quantity of Biochar added to the soil \u003cb\u003e(Lu\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al.\u003c/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003e2018).\u003c/b\u003e Applying Biochar in a combination with mineral fertilizer reduced fertilizer requirement as it prevents leaching of applied nutrients.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zambian cotton variety CDT V was cultivated under many stresses; drought, high temperature, acidity soil and no fertilizers addition that lead to yield decrease. Partial factor productivity (PFP) is a useful measure of nutrient use efficiency as it provides an integrative index that total input produced and quantifies economic output (\u003cb\u003eYadav 2003, Singh\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al.\u003c/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003e2017 and Li\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2018\u003c/b\u003e). Partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) value depending on the fertilizer does. The results showed that higher fertilizer dose (T3) had less PFP value (0.226 and 0.163) for 2021/22 and 2022/23, respectively. On the other hand the less fertilizer dose (T5) has the highest PFP value (4.13 and 3.12 for first and second season, respectively). While, medium fertilizer dose (T4) had the highest PFP value (0.481 and 0.31), because of higher lint cotton yield. These results represented that PFP depends on two major factors; fertilizer dose and final cotton yield. The application is not economical, when the yield increased enough to pay for its cost per applied fertilizer unit (\u003cb\u003eSingh, 2004\u003c/b\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eYield reduction ratio (YR %) is the loss of cotton yield due to biotic and abiotic stress. The results of the study showed that the differences were highly increased between fertilizer types and doses. Under rainfed condition the cotton production varies from 80 to 1100 kg/ha, whiles most countries having cotton yields below 600 kg/ha (\u003cb\u003eICAC, 2023\u003c/b\u003e). The average yield productivity in Zambia is 300 kg/ha, the very low production is due to drought, soil acidity and high temperature. The differences in yields obtained between the researcher fields at the Cotton Development Trust and at the farmer fields can be explained by the farmers did not apply any fertilizers due to its expensive price. Some previous studies have shown that adding Biochar can increase yield, plant height, number of fruiting branches / plant and number of bolls / plant (\u003cb\u003eElangovan, 2014; Xu\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003e2016; Shen\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al.\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e2018; Tovihoudji\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003e2022 and Li\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2023).\u003c/b\u003e The application of Biochar will decrease fertilizer need by 7%, especially in highly degraded acidic or nutrient depleted soils. Many studies suggested that addition of Biochar along with mineral fertilizers leads to better establishment and growth of crops compared to application of synthetic fertilizers alone (\u003cb\u003eSohil\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2010; Peng\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2012 and Uzma\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2015\u003c/b\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThus, the correlation coefficient between quantitative traits is useful in selection criteria represent a swamp of interrelationships to improve different traits. The cotton breeders used significant and positive association between traits to yield and its components. Selection of one trait will led to the improvement the other traits. Many cotton researchers reported that seed cotton yield significantly and positively correlated with number of fruiting branches / plant, number of bolls / plant, and lint yield and also between all possible pairs for investigated traits (\u003cb\u003eEL-Mansy\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2020\u003c/b\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrinciple component analysis (PCA) is a multivariate statistical analysis used to investigate the relationship between traits and efficiently visualize the similarities between genotypes or treatments in which different factors exert strong effects on crop yield and growth. PCA is a useful technique to reduce the large data to many variables into important PCA to provide better information clearness. The results showed that the PC1 increased all the studied traits. This implies that the increasing in one variable will increase the other variables. This indicated that high selection pressure on one trait will increase the others. The long length of vectors was a contribution to the primary component. The acute angle between trait vectors showed the highly positive correlation between the studied traits. These results agreed with the highly significant positive association between five traits (\u003cb\u003eEl-Mansy\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2020 and Abdelmoghny\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2022\u003c/b\u003e). Also, the seven treatments were distinct and illustrated the variation within treatments. \u003cb\u003eZhu\u003c/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eet al\u003c/b\u003e., \u003cb\u003e2022\u003c/b\u003e used the same approach of streamlining the treatments in order to see the effect on soil fertility. Implying that where resources are limiting, phenotypic trait selection can only be employed based on these few treatments.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"CONCLUSION","content":"\u003cp\u003eBiochar fertilizers can be just as effective as synthetic fertilizers in enhancing seed cotton yield. There is little difference between the yields obtained from the latter. Furthermore, in order to effectively see the difference in treatment effects, it\u0026rsquo;s better to use treatments manure, Biochar and Synthetic fertilizer as separate treatments. New varieties with a broad resistance to diseases and lodging, and higher nitrogen use efficiency are required. In addition, based on the comparison between different fertilizers combination (biochar only, biochar\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;mineral fertilizer, organic only, mineral fertilizer only), the increase in cotton yield was highly significant by applying biochar\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;mineral fertilizer (NPK), but the amount of biochar should be appropriate. The highest PFP decreased with increase in fertilizer dose. PCA was performed to determine the relationship between various traits of CDT V cotton variety. The studied traits had highly significant positive correlation under seven fertilizer treatments. Also, PC1 contributed to the five traits based on the interaction between seven treatments.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eACKNOWLEDGEMENTS\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors acknowledge and are grateful for the project financial support from the International Trade Centre and led to the idea of setting up this experiment.Additionally, Technical support from the International Cotton Advisory Committee and Cotton Development Trust wholly appreciated.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthors Contributions\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMartin L.Simasiku initiated the conceptual framework of the experiment and laid out the design. Furthermore, he conducted the experiments at Cotton Development Trust. Ahmed A,analyzed the the data and reviewed the manuscript. Keshav K, and Sandhya K, further reviewed the manuscripts for improvements. All the authors approved the final manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailability of Data and materials\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdditional raw data other than that in the present article,is available upon request from the corresponding author.Nevertheless,all related data to the experiments is included in the present study.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics approval and consent to participate\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConsent for Publication\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting Interests\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAhmed, A. 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L. 2003.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eAssessing on-farm efficiency and economics of fertilizer N, P and K in rice-wheat systems of India. Field Crops Research 18: 39-51.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYuan, J.H., R.K. Xu and H. Zhang, 2011.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eThe forms of alkalis in the biochar produced from crop residues at different temperatures. Bioresour, Technol., 102: 3488-3497.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eZhang, Z., Dong, X., Wang, S. and Pu, X. 2020.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eBenefits of organic manure combined with biochar amendments to cotton root growth and yield under continuous cropping systems in Xinjiang, China. Scientific Reports, 10:4718. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61118-8.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"},{"header":"Tables","content":"\u003cp\u003eTables 1 to 8 are available in the Supplementary Files section\u003c/p\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Biochar, Cotton Stalks, cotton yield, partial fertilizer productivity, drought, acidity.","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4476943/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4476943/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eGrowing cotton in acidic soils under drought conditions is a critical issue for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Arid Regions. The Biochar is a soil amendment to enhance soil properties like; water-holding capacity and as a source of nutritional elements. Therefore, the prime focus is improving soil health without decreasing yield productivity from a unit area in a sustainable manner. The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of Biochar application on the cotton yield of the commercial variety CDT V in comparison with other fertilizers such as manure and synthetic fertilizers under combined acidity, high temperature and drought stresses in Magoye, Zambia during the two growing seasons of 2021/22 and 2022/23. The results indicated that the acidic soils under drought stress had a negative effect on cotton productivity. The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for treatment, years and their interaction for plant height and cotton yield. The observed results showed that the highest seed cotton yield and lint was 1888.92 and 868.90 kg/ha obtained from Biochar plus synthetic fertilizer treatment followed by Biochar plus manure produced 1691.85 and 778.25 kg/ha for seed cotton and lint yield, respectively. The highest partial fertilizer productivity decreased with increasing fertilizer dose. Also, the Principle Componet Analysis ( PCA ) showed acute angle between variables with long arms, which indicated highly significant positive correlation between five traits. Generally, Biochar combined with synthetic fertilizers could improve soil fertility leading to increased cotton productivity in arid and semi-arid regions.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Evaluation of Cotton Stalk Biochar Use Efficiency on Cotton Yield in Zambia","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-07-24 04:16:51","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4476943/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"15708ef6-6f5f-4795-abe2-ca1e8a86e119","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 24th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-08-01T06:00:04+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-07-24 04:16:51","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4476943","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4476943","identity":"rs-4476943","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}