Performance of liquid microbial consortium on bhendi (COBH -1) under precision farming system

Abstract

Carrier based microbial inoculants are widely used in
conventional agriculture to improve crop growth and yield.
Precision farming is a site specific management approach
whereas the conventional practice is a uniform fertilizer
application. Carrier based inoculum is not suitable for
precision farming system due to clogging effect. Hence the
liquid microbial consortium was developed using three
inoculants viz., Azospirillum brasilense sp 7, Bacillus
megaterium var. phosphaticum and Pseudomonas
fluorescens with suitable cell protectant i.e. 10mM of
phosphate buffer with 10% glycerol. We conducted a field
experiment to study the effect of biofertigation on plant
growth under precision farming system in bhendi (COBH
1). The result suggested the positive influence of 75% RDF
of NPK + Microbial consortium application with single time
(60 lit/ha) on delivery of inoculants viz., Azospirillum (5.96
± 0.12 log cells/ml), Bacillus megaterium var.
phosphoticum(7.00 ± 0.12 ml log cells/ml) and Pseudomonas
(7.30 ± 0.02 log cells/ml) on plant growth and 10% increase
in yield over conventional method.