APPRAISAL OF MICROBIAL INOCULANT ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF FORAGE SORGHUM
ANUREET KAUR,*, GULAB PANDOVE AND HARPREET KAUR OBEROI
Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Bathinda, Punjab, India
Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab
*(e-mail : anureet_1@pau.edu)
(Received : 29 October 2018; Accepted : 20 December 2018)
SUMMARY
The field experiments were conducted during kharif season of 2016 and 2017 at Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Bathinda, Punjab and Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The experiment was conducted in RCBD and replicated thrice. Biofertilizers, viz. Azotobacter sp., Sphingobacterium sp., Burkholderia sp. and Streptomyces badius were used for seed treatment of sorghum before sowing. Total nine treatments were evaluated, T1 : RDF, T2 : RDF + Azotobacter sp., T3 : RDF + Azotobacter sp.+ Sphingobacterium sp., T4 : RDF + Azotobacter sp.+ Burkholderia sp, T5 : RDF + Azotobacter sp.+ Streptomyces badius , T6 : 75% of RDF + Azotobacter sp., T7 : 75% of RDF + Azotobacter sp.+
Sphingobacterium sp., T8 : 75% of RDF + Azotobacter sp.+ Burkholderia sp., T9 : 75% of RDF + Azotobacter sp.+ Streptomyces badius. The result revealed that nonetheless, in all the treatments in which microbial inoculants were applied along with chemical fertilizer, numeric increases were observed. The highest growth and yield attributes were observed in T4 treatment (RDF + Azotobacter sp.+ Burkholderia sp.) at both the locations. The percentage increase in plant height, leaves per plant, tillers per plant, leaf/root ratio, green fodder yield and dry fodder yield in T4 treatment over control was 3.89, 11.28,9.6,11.2,4.11,4.28 and 4.72, 12.44.8.22,20.71,6.4,7.37, respectively at Bathinda and Ludhiana. This might be because of matching beneficial bacteria with their preferred crops, leading to optimized root colonization. Further, HCN content in all the treatments with microbial inoculants were slightly more than control but it was below permissible limit. In light of the results, it is concluded that
the application of RDF + Azotobacter sp. + Burkholderia sp. recorded maximum green forage yield with good quality of forage sorghum.
Key words: Sorghum, Azotobacter, Sphingobacterium, Burkholderia, Streptomyces, fodder yield