Performance of Liquid Bio-fertilizers on Growth and Yield of Sorghum in North Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

Performance of Liquid Bio-fertilizers on Growth and Yield of Sorghum in North Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

D. H. Patil^* , Pandit S. Rathod , Shreenivas B V , Yusufali A N , Manjunath Patil

Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Kalaburagi-585 101 ICAR- Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kalaburagi-585101 University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur-585101, Karnataka, India

Corresponding Author Email: dhpatil_uas@rediffmail.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.53709/ CHE.2020.v01i01.029

Abstract

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Introduction

Sorghum is one of the major cereal crops consumed in India after rice and wheat.Sorghum forms an important dietary staple for millions of population in the world, especially in the subtropical and semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. It is an important source of food and fodder, mostly in the traditional, smallholder farming sector [9]. Recently, it holds a significant place in the commercial farming sector as a feed crop, and is rapidly growing as a biofuel crop [7]. India ranks 5^th in sorghum production with an area of 4.5 m ha, producing 4.4 m t with a productivity of 1051 kg/ha [3]. In India production of sorghum is limited to few states. Major sorghum producing statesin India are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP and MP. At present Karnataka is the second largest state after Maharashtra having an area of 9.43 lakh hectare with a production of 8.92 lakh tonnes and a productivity of 1475 kg/ha [3].

The escalating cost of inorganic fertilizers and associated environmental hazards have failed in sustaining yields and have given way for integrated use of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients. Bio fertilizers form an integral part of organic nutrient supply system for improving crop productivity besides sustaining soil health. [16] Azospirillum is known to fix considerable quantity of nitrogen in range of 20-40 kg ha-1 in the rhizosphere in non-leguminous plants such as cereals, millets, oilseeds, cotton etc. Azospirillum considered as efficient bio fertilizer because of its ability of inducing abundant roots in several plants like rice, millets and oilseeds even in upland conditions. An estimated amount of 25- 30% chemical nitrogen fertilizer can be saved by the appropriate use of Azospirillum inoculants [14, 17]. Phosphorus solubilizing bacteria (PSB) play a vital role in persuading the insoluble phosphatic compound such as rock phosphate, bone meal, basic slag and particularly the chemically fixed soil phosphorus into available form, PSB encourages early root development, helps in rapid cell development in plants and consequently enhances diseases resistance towards pathogens [13].

Liquid bio fertilizer is a special formulation containing high number of desired microorganism with high shelf life and zero contamination with appropriate nutrient medium containing certain cell protectant chemicals. These chemicals promote cell survival during storage and after application to seed and also provide protection to microbial cells under extreme conditions in soil such as high temperature and desiccation [10]. They are cost effective and as a source of plant nutrients to supplement inorganic fertilizers. These microbial inoculants help in increasing crop productivity through increased biological nitrogen fixation, increased availability or uptake of nutrients by plants through solubilisation or increased absorption, stimulation of plant growth through hormonal action or antibiosis etc [16]. Interest in liquid bio-fertilizer formulations has grown rapidly all over the world, since the liquid bio-fertilizers of good quality hold great promise in agriculture because of benefits over the conventional carrier based bio-fertilizers such as longer shelf life, better survival on seed and better nodulation, cost saving on carrier material [8]. The information on the performance of liquid bio inoculants is scanty and limited majorly to pulse crops in the country. Liquid inoculants being the new innovation in bio fertilizer technology, the present study was undertaken to study the effect of application of carrier and liquid bio inoculants of Azospirillum sp. and PSB in combination on the performance of sorghum under field conditions [13].

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2017-18 and 2018-19 at Zonal Agricultural Research Station Kalaburagi on performance of liquid bio-fertilizers on growth and yield of sorghum in north eastern dry zone of Karnataka.The experiment was laid out with Complete Randomized Block Design replicated four times. There were six treatments. The treatments comprised T1: RDF alone, T2: RDF (Azosprillum+ PSB seed treatment @ 50g each kg^-1 seed), T3: RDF+Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 2ml+PSB @ 2ml kg^-1seed, T4  : RDF+Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 2ml+PSB @ 4ml kg^-1seed, T5: RDF+Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 4ml+PSB @ 2ml kg^-1seed, T6  : RDF+Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 4ml+PSB @ 4ml kg^-1seed.The gross and net plot sizes were 4.5 m x 5.0 m and 3.6 m x 4.40 m, respectively. The seeds were treated according to the treatments with bio fertilizers and sowing was done by dibbling of seeds with a spacing of 45 x 15 cm and the seeds were covered with soil. Recommended dose of fertilizers 50: 25: 0 kg ha^-1 NPK were applied at the time of sowing. CSH15R variety of Rabi sorghum was selected. The soil type of experimental site was Vertisol, which was medium deep and slightly alkaline in reaction (pH 8.5). The soil contained 0.56 organic carbon, 269 kg N, 19.6 kg P and 326 kg available K. All the crop husbandry practices were carried out according to the treatment details. The observations were taken by following standard procedures. The net plot yields were used for calculating yield per hectare. The experimental data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using Fisher’s method of analysis of variance as outlined by Gomez and Gomez (1984). The level of significance used in ‘F’ and ‘t’ tests was P=0.05. Critical difference values were calculated, wherever F test was found significant, results have been interpreted and discussed based on the pooled data of two years.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Growth and Growth Parameters

The results of the experiment clearly indicated that application of liquid biofertilizers (azospirillum and PSB) at different levels had significant influence on the performance of sorghum. There was significant difference between carrier and liquid biofertilizers on the growth parameters of sorghum 9 Table 1 and 2). Significantly higher plant height (262 cm) was recorded by T6: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4ml+PSB @ 4ml kg^-1 seed and it was on par with the all liquid biofertilizers treatments (251 cm, 261 cm and 259 cm in T3, T4 and T5 respectively). Significantly lowest plant height was recorded in T1: RDF alone (230 cm). This was on par with T2: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 50g+PSB @ 50 g kg^-1 seed (241 cm).  Similar trend was observed with leaf area and leaf area index. Total dry matter production was significantly lower with T1: RDF alone (52.5 g plant^-1). This was on par with T2: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 50 g + PSB @ 50 g kg^-1 seed (60.9 g plant^-1). Significantly higher total dry matter was recorded with T6: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 4 ml kg^-1 seed (67.8 g plant^-1) which was on par with other liquid bio fertilizer treatments (62.1 g plant^-1, 65.9 g plant^-1, 67.3 g plant^-1 in T3, T4 and T5 respectively). This might be ascribed to increased microbial activity in the rhizosphere which resulted in solubilization of bound form of soil minerals and enhanced availability of nutrients in the soil for plant growth and development by the liquid biofertilizers leading to improved cell division, seedling germination, vigour, emergence and productivity [2], [4], [14], [15] and [17]. Seed inoculation with liquid biofertilizers fixes nitrogen and solubilizes insoluble phosphate in soil and make available to plants due to which plant grows vigorously and put out higher total dry matter.

Number of days to 50% flowering and days to maturity differed significantly with different treatments. T1: RDF alone recorded significantly lower number of days to 50 per cent flowering (68.8 days) and days to maturity (105.25 days). Whereas T6: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 4 ml kg^-1 seedrecorded significantly higher number of days to 50 per cent flowering (79.8 days) and days to maturity (115.7 days). This was on par with other liquid bio fertilizer treatments (T3, T4 and T5). When plants are subjected to moisture and nutrient stress, they will come to flowering at early days by utilizing available resources and tries to complete their life cycle at the earliest and under assured nutrition environment extending the vegetative phase by putting growth and delaying flowering significantly. Even after the flowering, plants try to accumulate as much as photosynthates into the sink thus delaying the days to maturity. The results are in line with findings of [2], [5] and [15]

YIELD AND YIELD PARAMETERS

The pooled data (Table 3 and 4) clearly indicated that application of carrier and liquid biofertilizers (Azospirillum and PSB) at different levels had significant influence on the yield and yield parameters of sorghum. Among all the treatments, significantly higher grain yield (1553 kg ha^-1) and fodder yield (3198 kg ha^-1) was recorded with T6: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 4 ml kg^-1 seed. This was on par with T3  : RDF + Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 2 ml + PSB @ 2 ml kg^-1 seed (1478 kg ha^-1 and 3028 kg ha^-1grain yield and fodder yield respectively), T4  : RDF + Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 2 ml + PSB @ 4 ml kg^-1 seed (1499 kg ha^-1 and 3088 kg ha^-1 grain yield and fodder yield respectively) and  T5 : RDF + Seed treatment with Azospirllum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 2 ml kg^-1 seed (1513 kg ha^-1 and 3147 kg ha^-1 grain yield and fodder yield respectively). Whereas T1: RDF alone recorded significantly lower grain yield (1365 kg ha^-1) and fodder yield (2688 kg ha^-1) which was on par with T2: RDF + Azosprillum + PSB seed treatment @ 50 g each kg^-1 seed (1460 kg ha^-1 and 2930 kg ha^-1 grain yield and fodder yield respectively). Similar trend was followed in all other yield attributing parameters viz., number of grains per panicles and  grain weight per panicle while 100 seed weight was significantly higher with T6 (3.20 g) and lower with T1(2.86 g). Harvest index did not show any significant difference between the treatments. However, it was numerically higher with T6 (0.33%) and lower with T1 (0.32%). This was ascribed to increased microbial activity in the rhizosphere which resulted in solubilization of unavailable form of nutrients and production of growth promoting substances by the liquid biofertilizers thus leading to improved seedling germination, vigour emergence  total dry matter production and better physiological process and movement of photosynthates to sink. The results confirm the findings of [4], [14], [11], [15], [17].

ECONOMICS

The data on economics of sorghum (Table 5) indicated that significantly higher gross returns (Rs. 59365 ha^-1), net returns (Rs.35735 ha^-1) and benefit cost ratio (2.51) was obtained with T6: seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 4 ml kg^-1 seed and was on par with T3, T4 and T5. Significantly lower gross returns (Rs.51685 ha^-1), net returns (Rs.28160 ha^-1) and B:C ratio (2.2) were obtained with T1:RDF alone. The cost of cultivation with T1: RDF alone was Rs. 23525 ha^-1 While it was Rs. 23630 ha^-1 with T6 : seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 4 ml kg^-1 seed [1], [15], [16], and 17].

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that use of liquid bio fertilizer in agriculture is the updated technology that can help the sorghum crop for getting higher yield. Seed treatment with Azospirillum @ 4 ml + PSB @ 4ml kg^-1 seed is ideal for obtaining significantly higher grain yield (1553 kg ha^-1), fodder yield (kg 3198 ha^-1), gross returns (Rs. 59365 ha^-1), net returns (Rs. 35735 ha^-1) and B:C ratio (2.51) in rabi sorghum. Besides increasing the yield and returns, liquid biofertilizers can help in improving the fertility of soil by augmenting the nutrients and improving the soil health and minimizing the hazardous effects of chemical fertilizers.

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