Symbiotic Effectiveness of Acid Tolerant Nodulating Rhizobia on Growth, Yield and Nutrient Uptake of Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.) in Acidic Alfisols

Abstract

The symbiotic association between root nodulating bacteria viz. Rhizobium and pulses enhance the crop agronomic characteristics, productivity and quality depending upon the symbiotic effectiveness of the bacterial strain. To evaluate this effectiveness, a study was conducted during December, 2019−April, 2020 (rabi) at Central Farm of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar- 751003, Odisha aimed at evaluating the efficiency of seven isolated rhizobial strains of pigeon pea viz. BRP-2, BRP-4, BRP-8, BRP-20, BRP-28, BRP-56 and a local strain CHRS-7 in a randomized block design with four replications. The pigeon pea cv PRG-176 was used for study. The results revealed that seed inoculation with different Rhizobium strains enhanced the plant height (41.84–90.09 cm), relative growth rate (0.410−0.898 mm day-1), nodular characteristics, nodular nitrogen (3.11 to 4.11%), pod and seed characteristics in pigeon pea. In addition to that the potentiality of pigeon pea producing only 408 kg seed ha-1 without any seed inoculation could be enhanced to produce 888 kg seed ha-1 by seed inoculation in a coastal agroecosystem. The findings also revealed a better uptake of nutrients by the crop in Rhizobium inoculated practices that performed in the order Control <BRP-20<BRP-8<BRP-4<BRP-56<BRP-28<BRP-2<CHRS-7. The performance of local isolated rhizobial strain (CHRS-7) was better over other strains and it gives cardinal importance for the enhancement of pigeon pea growth, productivity and economics in a coastal acidic Alfisols.