Comparative study of the growth parameters of legumes grown in fipronil-stressed soils

In modern agronomy, insecticides of the diverse chemical families are repeatedly used to control various plant growth limiting insect pests and to improve plant productivity. However, the intensive application of these plant protecting agrochemicals results in their accumulation in soils in substantial concentration and deteriorates the soil fertility. Previous studies concerning the effect of insecticides are commonly confined to a specific legume and reports about the concurrent impact of any specific insecticide on more than one legume in parallel are rare. The present study was therefore, designed to assess the effect of insecticide fipronil simultaneously on common food legumes (chickpea, pea, lentil and green gram). In this study, fipronil displayed a varying degree of toxicity to the tested legumes. The highest toxicity of fipronil was observed in the shoot dry biomass, leghaemoglobin and chlorophyll content, and the seed protein in chickpea, nodule numbers and nodule biomass in pea, root dry biomass and shoot N in green gram, and nodule biomass, root N, root P, shoot P, and seed yield in lentil. Generally, the most toxic effect of fipronil was observed on the growth parameters of lentil plants.