Journal of FARM SCIENCES, Vol 31, No 2 (2018)

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Studies on developing mixed consortia of N2-fixing and Phosphate solubilizing liquid biofertilizers and population dynamics of biofertilizer strains in the consortia

H. S. NISARGA, C. R. PATIL

Abstract


An attempt was made to develop consortia of N2-fixing and Phosphate solubilizing liquid biofertilizers. A totalof four strains of biofertilizers, three recommended rhizobial strains namely, GR-2 for chickpea, NC-92 for groundnut,SB-120 for soybean and Pseudomonas striata a phosphate solubilizing bacterium (PSB) were used in developing mixedconsortia. Intrinsic antibiotic resistance (IAR) of each strain for six antibiotics was studied and used in population enumerationof strains. In the first phase three rhizobial strains with seven different ratios were formulated and the effectiveness of eachratio was studied. Only two among the seven ratios namely; 1GR-2:1SB-120:1NC-92 which supported higher populationand 2GR-2:1SB-120:2NC-92 which significantly influenced root biomass of chickpea (0.08 g plant-1), soybean(0.05 g plant-1) and groundnut (0.14 g plant-1) were used to develop mixed consortia. In the second phase mixed consortiacontaining three strains of Rhizobium and a PSB were developed using the two efficient ratios of rhizobial consortia andliquid formulation of PSB. Six different ratios of mixed consortia were formulated and the population dynamics of each ofthe four strains was studied at ambient conditions over 100 days. The survival of individual strain of rhizobia and PSB inthe mixed consortia was used to identify an efficient mixed consortium containing a PSB and three strains of Rhizobiumsuitable for three cross inoculation groups.

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