Effect of consortia liquid bio-fertilizer on yield, quality and economics of kharif soybean (Glycine max L.)

Introduction

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is an important pulse as well as oil-seed crop. Due to its ability to fix nitrogen within the soil, its referred as the "Golden Bean" or "Gold of Soil" because of its beneficial influence on subsequent crops. Consortia of liquid bio-fertilizer have higher efficiency in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fixing and have the ability to drive atmospheric nitrogen and provide it to plants. The benefits of the use of rhizobium inoculants show that quite good deal of money can be saved by marginal farmers by using quality tested inoculants on the farm (Zarrin et. al., 2006) [6] . It encourages early root development and produces organic acids like malice, succinic, fumaric, citric, tartaric and alpha ketoglutaric acid, which hastens the maturity and therefore increases the ratio of grain to straw as well as the total yield. The application of consortia liquid bio-fertilizer seed treatments on soybean enhanced that nodule number, fresh weight, dry weight of nodules, yield components and grain yield in comparison to conventional farmer's fertilizer level.

Materials and Methods

The field experiment was conducted in the kharif season of year 2022. Experiment consisted of eleven treatments laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of Control (no seed treatment) (T1), 100% RDF + (Rhizobium + PSB) 25 gm kg -1 seed treatment (T2), 75% RDF + (Rhizobium + PSB) 25 gm kg -1 seed treatment (T3), 100% RDF + 5 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T4), 100% RDF + 10 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T5), 100% RDF + 15 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T6), 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7), 75% RDF + 5 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T8), 75% RDF + 10 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T9), 75% RDF + 15 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg - 1 seed treatment (T10), 75% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T11), were used in this experiment. The seed of soybean variety Phule Sangam was sown on 22 nd July 2022 at spacing of 45 x 5 cm 2 .

Results and Discussion

Effect of seed inoculation treatments on yield, quality and economics of soybean Yield attributes and yield The important yield contributing characters like the number of pods plant 1 , number of seeds of pods -1 , weight of seeds plant -1 , test weight (g) were significantly more under 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7) than other seed inoculation treatments. The grain and straw yield of soybean (qt ha -1 ) was found to be significantly higher (25.87 and 37.90 qt ha -1 , respectively) in 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment weed-free treatment (T7). The lowest grain and straw yield are under seed inoculation treatment (T3). Increase in yield under treatment with the application of 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg seed treatment (T7) exhibited healthy crop growth may be due to the sufficient availability of nutrients and its efficient utilization by soybean crop because of fixation of atmospheric nitrogen symbiotically which results in higher growth and yield attributes as chlorophyll metabolism and more photosynthesis is facilitated due more nutrients. Thus, there was cumulative effect in the production of higher grain and straw yield of soybean than other seed inoculation treatments. Similar results were in agreement with Oad et al., (2000) [4] , Pabitra et al., (2007) [5] and Mandale et al., (2020) [3] .

Quality studies

Observations regarding the quality parameters viz., protein yield and oil yield were significantly influenced by different seed inoculation treatments. The protein yield and oil yield were observed significantly higher under 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7) than in the rest of the seed inoculation treatments in the study, while it was recorded significantly lowest in 75% RDF + (Rhizobium + PSB) 25 gm kg -1 seed treatment (T3). Among the different seed inoculation treatments, the highest protein yield and oil yield was recorded with the application of 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7) (1021.66 and 587.74 kg ha -1 ) which was statistically at par with the application of 100% RDF + 15 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T6) (949.97 and 474.72 kg ha -1 ). The application of 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7) has produced higher grain yield and as protein yield is product of protein content and grain yield and oil yield is product of grain yield and oil content thus present reflection was noticed. Similar results were in agreement with Jaga et al., (2015) [1] .

Economics

The data recorded in Table 3 showed that the among different seed inoculation treatments, the application of 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7) recorded numerically maximum gross monetary returns of Rs. 114864 ha -1 and net monetary returns of Rs. 73623 ha -1 during kharif 2022 as compared to other seed inoculation treatments. The maximum cost of cultivation and benefit cost ratio of soybean was recorded in treatment 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid bio-fertilizer kg -1 seed treatment (T7) was found superior (2.78) than rest of seed inoculation treatments. These confirm with findings Oad et al., (2000) [4] , Daravath and Takankhar (2018) [2] and Mandale et al., (2020) [3] .

Table 1:

Effect of seed inoculation treatments on yield contributing characters and yield of soybean.

Treatment Details Number of pods plant -1

Number of grain plant -1

Weight of grain plant -1 (g) Test weight (g) Grain yield (q ha -1 )

Straw yield (q ha

Conclusion

Based on the results of the investigation, it could be concluded that among the different seed inoculation treatments used in the experiment application of 100% RDF + 20 ml consortia liquid biofertilizer kg -1 seed treatment should be adopted for higher growth and yield of soybean than other seed inoculation treatments.

References

1. Jaga PK, Sharma S. Effect of bio-fertilizer and fertilizers on productivity of soybean. Annals of Plant and Soil Research. 2015;17(2):171-174.
2. Daravath R, Takankhar VG. Response of liquid biofertilizers (Bradyrhizobium and PSB) on nutrient content in soybean (Glycine max L.) International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences. 2018;7(5):2319-7706.
3. Mandale AF, Mahajan PD, Patil SA, Mane JT, Desai DD. Effect of liquid formulations of Rhizobium inoculation on growth and yield of mung bean. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phyto chemistry. 2020;10(1):1276-1292.
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5. Pabitra BK, Malay KB. Effect of liquid and carrier based Rhizobium inoculants on growth, nodulation and seed yield of urdbean. Journal of crop and weed. 2007;3(2):7-9.
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