Effect of Multi-Strain Bacterial Inoculation with Different Carriers on Growth and Yield of Maize under Saline Conditions

作者：Muhammad Irfan, Zahir Ahmad Zahir, Hafiz Naeem Asghar, Muhammad Kamran Khan, Hafiz Tanvir Ahmad, Qasim Ali · 发表于：International Journal of Agriculture and Biology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.17957/ijab/15.1215 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis

Soil salinity being a significant character of the arid and semi-arid climate, causes enormous reduction in the crop production. It does so by disturbing the hormonal and nutritional balances which are important for plant growth. Using plant growth promoting rhizobacteria to mitigate salinity stress is an emerging potential technology. By employing various mechanisms of actions, they have the ability to improve the crop production under saline conditions. However, when present in the natural environments, their survivability may reduce drastically due to various environmental stresses. But using carrier materials during inoculation can enhance bacterial survivability because carriers generally provide the bacteria with better suited micro climate, nutrition and help to withstand the stresses. This study was carried out to evaluate five different carrier materials for the improvement of maize crop growth and production. Bacterial consortium was applied along with the carriers including peat, pressmud, biogas slurry, biochar and compost to improve the crop production at salinity levels normal (1.53 dS m-1), 4 and 8 dS m-1. An un inoculated treatment as a control and a liquid inoculation application directly to the soil as a treatment were also maintained. Results revealed that with the increase in salinity, there was a significant reduction in maize plant growth and production. However, where consortium of PGPR strains (S5, S14 and S20) was applied, the growth and production of...