Abstract
Low-land rice ( Oryza sativa L.) cultivation in saline soils face some constraints include nitrogen availability. Saline-resistant nitrogen fixing bacteria Azotobacter are expected to increase supply nitrogen in saline soils. The objectives of the study were to determine the effect of liquid inoculant concentration of two Azotobacter isolates on early vegetative growth of lowland rice grown in potted saline soil. The greenhouse trial design was a randomized block design with seven treatments and four replications. The treatments were combination of isolates and Azotobacter liquid inoculant concentrations in single and mixed inoculation. The results showed that all plants experienced chlorosis and stunt due to high Electrical Conductivity. Inoculation of different isolates and concentrations did not influence the growth of lowland rice in soil with high EC at the end of experiment. Therefore, neither isolates nor concentration of Azotobacter could improve retarded-growth of lowland rice in saline soil.
Highlights
Limited arable land leads lowland rice cultivation in saline soils with low nitrogen availability
Azotobacter sp. isolate S1 and S2 were the collection of Soil Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture and isolated from rice rhizosphere grown in saline soils
Retarded growth of rice demonstrated during 3 weeks of crop establishment
Summary
Limited arable land leads lowland rice cultivation in saline soils with low nitrogen availability. Climate changes and irrigation practices increase the distribution of saline soil. In general saline soil located in coastal area affected by sea tidal and salt water intrusion. The main features of saline soil are sodium content between 8-15%, pH 4 dS/m (equivalent to 4 mmhos/cm) and sodium adsorption ratio >15% (Yan et al, 2015). Saline soil is one of the most destructive environmental conditions that causes major considerable decreased in plant growth, yield and crops quality (Shahbaz and Ashraf, 2013). Plants grow in saline agroecosystem are not able to adsorb water as much as they need. Limited water absorption in saline and sodic condition lead to water scarcity (Assouline et al, 2015) and low uptake of plant nutrient.
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