Abstract
Intensive agriculture involving high crop intensity, unavailability of organics, and higher use of straight fertilizers causes imbalanced use and deficiencies of several other macro and micronutrients. Nutrients supply through the integration of microbial consortium containing Gluconacetobater diazotrophicus, Trichoderma harzianum, and Pseudomonas fluorescens can reduce the requirements on the one hand and can also increase the response of chemical fertilizers. Thus we had planned the present experiment with the objectives (i) to determine the effect of integrated application of microbial consortium (MC) and NPK fertilizer on soil quality parameters and crop growth and yield attributes and (ii) to assess the effect of integration on agronomic efficiency of N, P and K and find out the possibilities for reduction in applied doses of NPK, if any. Five treatments viz., T1; N0P0K0; T2: N75P13K25; T3: N150P26K50; T4: N75P13K25 + microbial consortium and T5: N150P26K50 + microbial consortium containing new strains of Trichoderma harzianum, Gluconcetobacter diazotrophicus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens (CFU 109–10 per ml liquid culture) were evaluated under four replications in a randomized block design (RBD). Experimental results indicated that integrating microbial consortium and NPK fertilizers' application proved effective in improving soil organic carbon, soil microbial population, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, and soil respiration. Integrated use of microbial consortium with NPK also improved the cation exchange capacity of soil and roots. However, the growth and yield attributes, nutrients uptake, sugarcane, and sugar yields also revealed a positive effect of microbial consortium's integrated application with NPK. The integration of MC and NPK also improved the agronomic efficiency of applied nutrients (NPK). Reduction of 50% NPK with these microbial consortia (Trichoderma harzianum, Gluconcetobacter diazotrophicus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens) was found better than the application of full NPK through chemical fertilizers. Thus application of N150P26K50 with microbial consortium can sustain soil fertility besides improving sugarcane and sugar yields in subtropical Indian conditions.
Highlights
Intensive agriculture involving high crop intensity, unavailability of organics, and higher use of straight fertilizers causes imbalanced use and deficiencies of several other macro and micronutrients
After the grand growth stage, a marginal decrease in Soil organic carbon (SOC) was recorded with all the treatments, including Nutrients uptake (NPK) + microbial consortium (MC)
The application of MC with NPK increased SOC by 17.86% (21.25 Mg ha−1) compared to NoPoKo and 10.05% compared to N 150P26K50
Summary
Intensive agriculture involving high crop intensity, unavailability of organics, and higher use of straight fertilizers causes imbalanced use and deficiencies of several other macro and micronutrients. Nutrients supply through the integration of microbial consortium containing Gluconacetobater diazotrophicus, Trichoderma harzianum, and Pseudomonas fluorescens can reduce the requirements on the one hand and can increase the response of chemical fertilizers. An integrated application of these microbes with chemical fertilizers has great scope keeping in view the reduction of macronutrients supplied through chemical fertilizers and improving the nutrient use efficiencies besides increasing crop yields. Complementarities between Trichoderma, Gluconacetobacter, and Pseudomonas spp is an essential issue for efficient utilization of these microbes and assessing their effect on soil quality parameters, crop growth, and yields as well. The scientific information on reducing NPK through the combined use of these microorganisms is lacking It holds great promise for sustaining soil fertility and crop productivity in the sugarcane-based system. A need was felt for a systematic study on assessing microbial consortium, its effect on soil quality parameters, sugarcane growth, yields, and possibilities to reduce NPK level to sugarcane crop
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