Abstract
ABSTRACT Soil degradation through sodicity is a universal concern. Regular biofertilizers are ineffective under sodic soils, owing to the inability of microbes to tolerate salt stress. To overcome this, attempts have been made to develop bioformulation based on halophiles that can replace regular biofertilizer applications in salt-affected soils. Therefore, to study the efficacy of halophilic biofertilizers, i.e. Halo-Azo, Halo-PSB, Halo-Zinc and Halo-Mix, on the growth and productivity of paddy (var. PR-113), a pot-culture experiment was undertaken during the summer season of 2019–2020 at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Chatha, India. Application of these bioformulations showed a significant decrease in soil pH, EC and sodium content of sodic soil, with mean values of 8.94, 0.46 dS m−1 and 209.6 mg kg−1, respectively. These halophilic bioformulations showed a significant increase in plant growth, yield and yield attributes in terms of plant height, dry matter accumulation (DMA), leaf area index, number of effective panicles per m2, length of panicle, number of grains per panicle, grain yield, straw yield and 1000-grain weight. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium uptake in rice grain was significantly higher in crops grown with the inoculation of halophilic formulations under sodic soil, which was 40.30 kg ha−1, 8.27 kg ha−1 and 6.41 kg ha−1, respectively, as compared to the corresponding control. Thus, the exploitation of Halo-Azo, Halo-PSB, Halo-Zinc and Halo-Mix as biofertilizers has enormous potential in improving the crop productivity under sodic soil conditions, owing to their cost-effectiveness.
Published Version
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