Divya Juyal;Ramesh Chandra;Deep Chandra Suyal;Saurabh Kumar;Reeta Goe

Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand (India);Department of Microbiology, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand (India);Department of Microbiology, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263145, Uttarakhand (India

bioinoculants;diazotrophs;chickpea (cicer arietinum l.);jesenii;natural;rhodococcus qingshengi

Cold-adapted bioinoculants are considered as harbingers of sustainable hill agriculture. Therefore, two previously characterized psychrotolerant diazotrophs, Pseudomonas jesenii MP1 and Rhodococcus qingshengii S10107, were evaluated for their plant growth-promoting potential for chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) grown under natural field conditions. Comparative analysis of agronomical and biochemical crop parameters revealed the irrelevance of chemical fertilizers for chickpea production; the diazotrophs alone were sufficient to fulfil the crop's nutritional requirement. However, the integrated use of bacterial strains in combination with urea at 20 kg N ha(-1) as urea was being recommended for higher crop yield and better soil nitrogen status. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)-based soil bacterial dynamics unveiled the persistence of both diazotrophs until the end of the crop maturation period without affecting the native micro-flora. Therefore, these bioinoculants can be explored as natural nitrogen resource, and an additional incentive in their bio-formulation will be a step towards agricultural sustainability.