Introducing natural farming in black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) cultivation

This paper reviews the role of Natural Farming as an ecological farming method to produce organically grown food of safe and high quality and at the same time improve soil quality and soil health. Currently, there is a dearth of information on the effects of Natural Farming approach on black pepper farms particularly in Sarawak, Malaysia. Previous studies on other crops had indicated positive outcome using the Natural Farming method. Thus, this paper discusses the essential role of effective microorganisms in Natural Farming and their potential in pepper cultivation. Through the action of effective microorganisms, this approach should be able to transform a degraded soil ecosystem into one that is fertile and has high nutrients availability. The mixed culture of effective microorganisms applied must be mutually compatible and coexist with one another to ensure its favorable establishment and interaction in the soil. Therefore, it is anticipated that introducing Natural Farming in black pepper cultivation can enhance the predominance of effective microorganisms in the soil, which in turn could lead to promising growth and yield of the crop

Brassinosteroid insensitive 1-associated kinase 1 (OsI-BAK1) is associated with grain filling and leaf development in rice

Brassinosteroid Insensitive 1 (BRI1)-Associated Kinase I (BAK1) has been reported to interact with BRI1 for brassinosteroid (BR) perception and signal transduction that regulate plant growth and development. The aim of this study is to investigate the functions of a rice OsBAK1 homologue, designated as OsI-BAK1, which is highly expressed after heading. Silencing of OsI-BAK1 in rice plants produced a high number of undeveloped green and unfilled grains compared to the untransformed plants. Histological analyses demonstrated that embryos were either absent or retarded in their development in these unfilled rice grains of OsI-BAK1 RNAi plants. Down regulation of OsI-BAK1 caused a reduction in cell number and enlargement in leaf bulliform cells. Furthermore, transgenic rice plants overexpressing OsI-BAK1 were demonstrated to have corrugated and twisted leaves probably due to increased cell number that caused abnormal bulliform cell structure which were enlarged and plugged deep into leaf epidermis. The current findings suggest that OsI-BAK1 may play an important role in the developmental processes of rice grain filling and leaf cell including the bulliform cells

Evaluation of Deep Learning for Image-based Black Pepper Disease and Nutrient Deficiency Classification

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) diseases and nutrient deficiency can often be observed based on the symptoms exerted on its leaves. This paper aimed to investigate the effectiveness of employing a deep learning approach to classify black pepper disease and nutrient deficiency based on leaf images. We constructed a customized convolutionary neural network to determine how its training parameters would affect the prediction performances. Another two deep learning neural networks VGG16 and Inception V3, are also employed for comparisons. We have sampled 947 images from farms in Sarawak consisted of 8 classes in total. Image augmentation is performed on the images to produce a total of 9532 images. The result shows that the customized CNN performed slightly better than the other two deep learning approaches at a 0.98 sensitivity rate. Furthermore, image augmentation contributed to improving prediction performance for all the deep learning models. This study has demonstrated that deep learning is a feasible approach for classifying black pepper diseases and nutrient deficiency based on leaf images

Chemical and biological characteristics of organic amendments produced from selected agro-wastes with potential for sustaining soil health: a laboratory assessment

Sustaining soil health cannot be divorced from sustainable crop production. Organic, or natural, farming is being promoted as a good sustainable agriculture practice. One aspect of organic farming that could significantly enhance and sustain soil health, soil quality, and crop productivity is the use of high-quality soil conditioners or organic amendments produced from agro-wastes. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize the chemical and biological properties of selected agrowastes with potential for use as organic amendments in sustaining soil health. Standard procedures were used to produce and characterize the soil conditioners, namely fermented plant juice (FPJ), fermented fruit juice (FFJ), palm kernel shell (PKS) biochar, and kitchen waste (KW) compost. The fermented juices (FPJ and FFJ), PKS biochar, and KW compost exhibited chemical and biological properties with good potential as soil conditioners or organic amendments to sustain soil health. The fermented juices contained important microbes that can solubilize P and K in soil for crop use. The high pH and C content of the biochar and compost and the high cation exchange capacity of the biochar are good indicators of the potential of these materials to sustain soil health in terms of the liming effect of acid soils, nutrient and water retention, nutrient reserves, and a suitable habitat for microbial life. Moreover, the organic amendments contain reasonable amounts of macro- and micro-nutrients, which could be released to increase soil fertility. Despite these potential benefits, field application of these organic amendments is necessary to evaluate their effects on soil health and crop production in both the short and long ter

Effects of Organic Amendments Produced from Agro-Wastes on Sandy Soil Properties and Black Pepper Morpho-Physiology and Yield

Sandy textured soil infertility poses a problem for sustainable crop cultivation. This problem is usually dealt with by the addition of chemical fertilizers, which are expensive and can cause serious environmental issues if not managed well. A better alternative to improve and manage sandy soil infertility is the use of organic amendments produced from agro-wastes. This two (2)- year field study was conducted in a sandy-textured soil grown with black pepper to evaluate mainly the effects of chemical fertilizer, fermented plant and fruit juices, compost, and biochar on soil properties and morpho-physiological characteristics and yield of black pepper. Generally, the results indicated that the combination of fermented fruit juice, compost, and biochar was comparable to and in some cases better than chemical fertilizer in terms of soil physical, chemical, and biological properties as well as crop performance. These findings were even more pronounced in the second year of measurements. There were strong positive relationships between soil N and pepper leaf chlorophyll content and between soil microbes and soil respiration. The findings showed that these soil amendments produced from agro-wastes are a good alternative to the use of chemical fertilizers on sandy soils to improve soil fertility and productivity and the yield of black pepper sustainably

Transcriptional Sequencing and Gene Expression Analysis of Various Genes in Fruit Development of Three Different Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) Varieties

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a vital spice crop with uses ranging from culinary to pharmacological applications. However, limited genetic information has constrained the understanding of the molecular regulation of flower and fruit development in black pepper. In this study, a comparison among three different black pepper varieties, Semengok Aman (SA), Kuching (KC), and Semengok 1 (S1), with varying fruit characteristics was used to provide insight on the genetic regulation of flower and fruit development. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology was used to determine the flower and fruit transcriptomes by sequencing on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform followed by de novo assembly using SOAPdenovo-Trans. The high-quality assembly of 66,906 of unigenes included 64.4% of gene sequences (43,115) with similarity to one or more protein sequences from the GenBank database. Annotation with Blast2Go assigned 37,377 genes to one or more Gene Ontology terms. Of these genes, 5,874 genes were further associated with the biological pathways recorded in the KEGG database. Comparison of flower and fruit transcriptome data from the three different black pepper varieties revealed a large number of DEGs between flower and fruit of the SA variety. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis further supports functions of DEGs between flower and fruit in the categories of carbohydrate metabolic processes, embryo development, and DNA metabolic processes while the DEGs in fruit relate to biosynthetic process, secondary metabolic process, and catabolic process. The enrichment of DEGs in KEGG pathways was also investigated, and a large number of genes were found to belong to the nucleotide metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism categories. Gene expression profiling of flower formation-related genes reveals that other than regulating the flowering in black pepper, the flowering genes might also be implicated in the fruit development process. Transcriptional analysis of sugar transporter and carbohydrate metabolism genes in different fruit varieties suggested that the carbohydrate metabolism in black pepper fruit is developmentally regulated, and some genes might serve as potential genes for future crop quality improvement. Study on the piperine-related gene expression analysis suggested that lysine-derived products might present in all stages of fruit development, but the transportation was only active at the early stage of fruit development. These results indicate several candidate genes related to the development of flower and fruit in black pepper and provide a resource for future functional analysis and potentially for future crop improvement

Effects of Organic Soil Amendments on Photosynthetic Traits of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.) in an Alluvial Soil

Black pepper in Sarawak, Malaysia, is mainly cultivated using the conventional method involving heavy usage of chemical compound fertilizers. Organic soil amendments can reduce the required amounts of chemical fertilizers. So, the objectives of this study were to compare selected properties of soils as well as the physiological performances of mature vines following the application of fermented juices, biochar, and compost. There were five treatments; each replicated five times in a randomized complete block design. Treatments were as follows: (i) FNPK–NPK 15 : 15 : 15 compound fertilizer; (ii) FPJ (fermented plant juice); (iii) FPJBC (FPJ, biochar, and compost); (iv) FFJ (fermented fruit juice); and (v) FFJBC (FFJ, biochar, and compost). The results revealed that combined fermented juices, biochar, and compost positively improved soil bulk density, soil porosity, TOC, C/N ratio, available P, exchangeable K, and exchangeable Ca. The fermented juices incorporated with biochar and compost had favourable effects on the leaf chlorophyll concentration, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and gas exchange rates such as photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration. Pepper leaf chlorophyll, NDVI, and photosynthesis rate were negatively correlated with soil total N. These results suggested that introducing organic soil amendments such as fermented juices, biochar, and compost improved soil physiochemical properties and black pepper physiological traits