Performance of wheat (Triticum aestivum) to incorporation of organic manure and bioinoculants

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of integrated use of farmyard manure and bio-inoculants on wheat productivity for two years in succession. Increasing levels of farmyard manure (FYM) up to 15 t ha⁻¹ significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved the dry matter accumulation, effective tillers per m row length, and grain weight per spike in both the years. Application of 15 t ha⁻¹ FYM caused significant increase in spikelets per spike and grains per spike over control and 5 t ha⁻¹ during two consecutive years. Inoculation with MSX-9 strain of Azotobacter chroococcum produced significantly higher dry matter accumulation to 25.63, 13.33, 7.78 and 23.66, 8.35, 5.50% over uninoculation, Azospirillum brasilense (SP-7) and Azospirillum lipoferum (A-5) at harvest during 1999–2000 and 2000–2001, respectively. Incorporation of 15 t ha⁻¹ FYM significantly (p ≤ 0.05) enhanced grain and straw yield to 62.45 and 38.05%; 56.66 and 36.28%; 59.42 and 37.52% over control in 1999–2000, 2000–2001 and pooled analysis, respectively. The grain and straw yield of wheat significantly (p ≤ 0.05) enhanced to 26.51, 10.10, 7.54 and 14.45, 5.77, 3.16% through A. chroococcum (MSX-9), A. brasilense (SP-7) and A. lipoferum (A-5) over uninoculation.

Keywords:

• Azotobacter
• Azospirillum
• farmyard manure
• inoculation
• biofertilizer