Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are capable to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and reduce input cost of farmer. This study aimed to investigate and evaluate inoculation effect of indigenous rhizospheric bacteria on growth and yield of cereal (wheat and maize) under in vitro and in vivo condition using different treatments of PGPR alone or consortium with and without recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers. Potential strains were selected on the bases of their ACC deaminase activity, sidrophore production, P-solubilization and production of indole acetic acid (IAA). Further these strains were tested in three different experiments (growth chamber, pot and field). Shoot, root length (cm), fresh and dry weight (gm/plant), no. of tillers, spike length (cm), grain yield (kg/ha) was calculated at harvesting time in all experiments. We found significant increase in crop growth response to the inoculants in comparison with un-inoculated control. In pot and field trial we tested PGPR alone and in consortium with recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers. The results of our study revealed that inoculation of bacterial strains with wheat seeds significantly increased plant growth and improve crop yield. Our results imply that these strains could be employed in different combination and we get higher yield in case of half recommended doses of inorganic fertilizers along with consortium of strains in compare with sole application of recommended dose of fertilizer and along with consortium of strains. These strains were further identified by using 16Sr RNA technique and also identification through fatty acid profile and biolog of these strains was done. We concluded that indigenous microorganisms have more potential and it contributes in good crop quality and sufficient yield when they are applied in combination and also have potential with reverence to reduce the rate of inorganic fertilizers.

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