AMELIORATION OF SODIC SOIL FOR WHEAT CULTIVATION USING BIOAUGMENTED ORGANIC SOIL AMENDMENT

A novel bioaugmented organic amendment (SFOA) [consisted of vermicompost (pre-enriched with plant growth promoting fungi) mixed with pressmud and Azadirachta indica (A. Juss.) seed cake] was developed to reclaim sodic soil and support wheat production. A field trial of the SFOA application with/without chemical fertilizers conducted in completely randomized design with four replications to compare growth, yield and seed protein contents of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) on sodic soil. The favourable changes occurred in different properties of amended soils were studied. A combined application of chemical fertilizer and SFOA significantly (p<0.05) increased the number of spikelet per plant (63%) and weight of grains per ear (65%) in the amended soil compared with the control. Likewise, the grain yield, weight of 1000 grains and seed protein contents of wheat were significantly (p<0.05) increased in the combined application compared with other treatments. The expression of protein bands with molecular weights of 36, 52 and 66 kDa were higher in seeds of wheat under the combined treatment. The improvement in wheat production was attributed to significant favourable changes in different soil characteristics such as bulk density, total organic C, alkaline phosphatase, a-glucosidase, dehydrogenase and cellulase activities that were increased by 234%, 181%, 234%, 176%, 189% and 150%, respectively, in case of amended soil under the combined treatment compared with the control. The tested SFOA may be recommended as soil amendment for reclaiming sodic soil and supporting wheat cultivation with better crop growth and yield in combination with chemical fertilizers on sodic soil. Copyright (C) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.