Effects of Cyanobacterial Inoculation on the Growth and Yield of Triticum aestivum L. var. Deva K9117

Abstract

The exponential growth in human population is become a serious concern in terms of their nutritional requirements. For the solution of this problem several methods and technologies have been adopted like development of high yielding varieties with improved agricultural practices. These varieties require more chemical fertilizers for the maximum production but excessive utilization of these chemical fertilizers may cause the deficiencies and infertility in the agricultural soils. So there is need to replace these chemical fertilizers with biological fertilizers due to their environmental sustainability. The utilization of cyanobacteria as bio-fertilizers are an eco-friendly, easily manageable and self-regenerating process which improve the nutrient status as well as health of soil. In addition to biological nitrogen fixation they also produce several growth promoting substances. During the present investigations we have adopted an experimental research approach to examine the effects of cyanobacteria (inoculation of live Anabaena fertilissima C.B. Rao and Nostoc linckia Bornet ex Bornet and Flahault isolates collected from river Ganga at Kanpur, U.P, India) as bio-fertilizer in Triticum aestivum L. var. Deva K9117 on the basis of average height of plants, weight of grains and number of grains/spike. The observations showed significant changes/improvements in growth and productivity of Triticum aestivum L. var. Deva K9117. The inoculation of Anabaena fertilissima C.B. Rao (100 ml) increased the 19.81% grains/spike, 9.86% weight of grains and 7.91% height of plants while inoculation of Nostoc linckia Bornet ex Bornet and Flahault (100 ml) increased the 19.36% grains/spike, 7.27% weight of grains and 5.64% height of plants over the control. The most considerable finding of the study was the mixture of Anabaena fertilissima C.B. Rao+Nostoc linckia Bornet ex Bornet and Flahault (60:40) increased 24.32% grains/spike, 15.09% weight of grains and 10.09% height of plants over the control.