Reduced soil tillage is a powerful means to mitigate soil degradation. However, in arid climates, no-till rainfed technologies often result in yield drop due to lack of soil moisture and mineral nutrition. Rainfed production of winter wheat using direct sowing and diversified fertilization in South Kazakhstan was studied in 2019–2020. Eight field-scale treatments using nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers were studied for biometric parameters of winter wheat. An economic profitability of the amendments used was assessed. The soil managed to accumulate productive moisture to support plants’ needs during formation of productive organs. Use of phosphorus fertilizer at direct sowing accelerated grain maturation, and the combination of phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer lengthened the growing season. The highest production cost of 1 tonne of grain was in the plots that did not receive any amendments, and the lowest cost was in the treatment with use of plant growth stimulants together with micronutrient fertilizer. For the first time, optimization of the soil nutritional regime with consideration of the biological and phenological demands allowed for the balance of the plant nutrition and cost efficiency of grain production with direct sowing of winter wheat in dry conditions in South Kazakhstan.

The production of rainfed crops in arid regions is an extremely difficult task, especially without tillage. In southern Kazakhstan, in 2020–2021, the approbation of various nutrition regimes for winter wheat grown in conditions of no-tillage rainfed lands has been studied. The effect of different doses and terms of application of growth stimulators, micronutrients, bio-fertilizers and mineral fertilizers, as well as their economic efficiency, was studied in ten variables. The use of a combination of growth stimulators and microfertilizers produced the highest grain yield and was the most cost-effective. The greatest value of the nominal net profit of 223.25 euro and 244.10 euro from one hectare was provided and calculated with the recommended target grain yield of 2.0 t/ha dose of mineral fertilizers, respectively; however, the production cost of one ton of grain in these treatments was also highest. Further research is continuing with a wider range and combination of amendments and various crops in a rainfed no-till winter wheat farm in southern Kazakhstan.

K.R. AISAKULOVA, N.D. SLYAMOVA, A.M. USTEMIROVA, A.A. SEISENOVA, S.ZH. KAZYBAYEVA, S. SKAK, and ZH. MATAI Citation: Aisakulova KR, Slyamova ND, Ustemirova AM, Seisenova AA, Kazybayeva SZh, Skak S, Matai Zh (2023). Organic fertilizer’s role in the improvement of soil microflora and biometric values in fruit crops. SABRAO J. Breed. Genet.

In protected cultivation, light intensity, spectral quality, red/far-red ratio, photoperiod and diel fluctuation can alter the belowground biological environment by modifying carbon allocation, root architecture, root exudation, nutrient acquisition, immune tone and rhizosphere physicochemistry. Direct community-level evidence in vegetables remains sparse, but targeted experiments on bacterial colonization, arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis, beneficial fungi and root pathogens show that light can condition specific plant–microbe interactions. This review develops a molecular framework for light–root–microbiome interactions in protected vegetable crops and distinguishes direct community evidence, targeted colonization or symbiosis evidence, crop-specific indirect evidence and mechanistic analogues. We synthesize how photoreceptors and PIF-, HY5-, hormone- and immunity-related pathways regulate root niche construction, while also considering direct microbial photoreception. Experimental examples include tomato rhizosphere responses to shading, R:FR-dependent colonization by Serratia plymuthica, phyB–HY5–strigolactone control of tomato mycorrhization, light-intensity effects on lettuce–AMF interactions, spectrum-dependent Trichoderma harzianum colonization and light sensing by Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum. The evidence supports the view that light acts as a conditional regulator whose effects depend on crop genotype, microbial partner, substrate, nutrient status and developmental stage. Progress will require factorial lighting experiments coupled with exudomics, stable-isotope tracing, absolute microbial quantification, isolate genomics, synthetic communities and pathogen-challenge assays.