A field experiment to study the effect of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on the yield components and yield of groundnut (cv. JL 24) was conducted in medium black clay soil for three consecutive kharif seasons (2000, 2001 and 2002) under rainfed conditions at Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad (Karnataka). The initial soil test values were 0.56 per cent organic carbon, 270.61 kg available N ha-1, 40.85 kg available P2O5 ha-1, 436.67 kg available K2O ha-1, with 7.7 pH. The experiment consisted of five treatments (seed inoculation with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria PGPR 1, PGPR 2, PGPR 4 and combination of PGPR 1, PGPR 2 and PGPR 4 in addition to an un-inoculated control) and laid out in RCBD with four replications.  The isolates were fluorescent pseudomonads. Recommended cultivation practices were adopted for groundnut. Seed inoculation with PGPR increased the number of nodules and nodule dry weight plant-1. Mean of three years (2000, 2001 and 2002) data indicated that inoculation of groundnut seeds with PGPR produced 7.70 to 12.11 per cent higher dry pod yield and 10.80 to 12.11 per cent higher kernel yield over un-inoculated control (2597 and 1898 kg dry pod and kernel yield ha-1, respectively). Seed inoculation with PGPR (either PGPR 1 or PGPR 2 or PGPR 4 or combination of all the three) also improved the yield components such as number of pods plant-1, dry pod weight plant-1, shelling per cent, 100-kernel weight and percentage of sound mature kernels.