Effect of humic acid and pgpr on the performance of chickpea cicer arietinum l and soil health

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the rabi seasons of 2020-21 and 2021-22 at newlineD6 block of N.E. Borlaug Crop Research center of G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and newlineTechnology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) to study the quotEffect of humic acid and PGPR on the newlineperformance of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and soil healthquot. The climate was humid newlinesubtropical. The site of experimental site was silty clay loam in texture being medium in newlineorganic carbon (0.65 and 0.69 %) and available phosphorus (14.2 and 16.0 kg/ha) content but newlinelow in available nitrogen (175.5 and 206.3 kg/ha) and potassium (133.2 and 142.4 kg/ha) newlineduring both the years. The experiment was laid out in Randomized block design (RBD) with newlineten treatments and three replications. The details of the treatments are T1- Absolute control, T2 newline- Humic acid at 2.5 kg/ha (soil application), T3 -Humic acid at 20 g/kg of seed (seed newlinetreatment), T4-PGPR at 20 g/kg of seed (seed treatment), T5- RDF, T6 -RDF + HA (soil newlineapplication), T7 -RDF +HA (seed treatment), T8- RDF +PGPR (Seed treatment), T9- HA (soil newlineapplication) +PGPR (seed treatment), T10- RDF + HA (soil application)+PGPR (seed newlinetreatment).The chickpea variety PG-186 was used. The crop was sown on 2-12-2020 and 15- newline12-2021 in the first and second year, respectively and the crop harvested on 15-04-2021 and newline20-04-2022 in the first and second year, respectively. newlineResults revealed that among all treatments, T10(RDF+ HA-soil application+ PGPR) newlinebrought significant effect on mortality percentage, growth parameters viz. plant height, plant newlinespread, number of branches/plant, dry matter accumulation/plant, CGR, RGR, nodule newlinenumbers/plant, nodule dry weight/plant, number of pods/plant, biological yield, and grain newlineyield during both the years. Soil physical properties (particle density, porosity, and water newlineholding capacity), chemical properties (EC, organic carbon content, available N, P, and K newlinecontent in soil) and biological properties (microbial count, dehydrogenase activity and soil newlinerespiration) were influenced significantly by T10 (RDF+ HA-soil application+ PGPR) during newlineboth the years but treatments had no significant effect on plant population, days taken to 50% newlineflowering and maturity, grains/pod, 100 grains weight, straw yield, grain: straw ratio, harvest newlineindex. Bulk density and pH of soil were influenced significantly in the second and first year, newlinerespectively. The maximum and the minimum net return and B:C ratio was recorded in T10 newline(RDF+ HA-soil application+ PGPR) and T1 (control), respectively, during both years of the newlineexperiment. newlineThe inference can be drawn from present investigation concluded that the application newlineof humic acid and PGPR along with RDF positively enhanced the performance of chickpea newline