Influence of inorganic fertilizers with biofertilizers on biochemical components, growth and yield of garlic under subtropical irrigated condition

Abstract

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an economically important vegetable crop which is used worldwide for culinary and medicinal purposes. The extensive use of inorganic fertilizers poses serious collateral problems such as environmental pollution, pest resistance development and food safety decline. Thus present study was conducted to investigate the effects of various application rate of inorganic fertilizers (100% NPK, 75% NPK and 50% NPK) and biofertilizers (consortium I and consortium II) on garlic yield and soil health. Results revealed that supplementation of 75% NPK along with biofertilizers gave the higher yield, biochemical components and soil parameters than 100% NPK application. Moreover, nutrient contents (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) of garlic leaves and bulbs increased by combined inoculation of different combinations of NPK along with biofertilizers. Integrated application of inorganic fertilizers along with biofertilizers improved soil’s physico-chemical (pH and organic carbon) and biological (dehydrogenase activity) properties. Therefore, it can be concluded that integrated utilization of these biofertilizers along with 75% NPK improves soil health and it also offers the scope of reducing the application of inorganic fertilizers to garlic crop by 25% without any loss in bulb yield.