Consortium of Phosphate-solubilizing Bacteria and Fungi for Promotion of Growth and Yield of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum)

The combined inoculation of two or more microbial species, such as phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) and PSB and nitrogen fixers, has often been reported to exert positive effect on growth and yield of various crops; however, reports on dual inoculation of PSB and free-living phosphate-solubilizing fungi (PSF) are hardly available, which makes this study relevant. P-solubilization efficiency (SE) was highest for Bacillus sp.; SE values for RM-2 were highest on the 2nd day of inoculation, whereas those for Aspergillus niger S-36 continuously increased up to the 5th day of incubation. We performed an experiment to evaluate the co-inoculation effect of two phosphate-solubilization-efficient strains of bacteria and fungi in a pot trial. RM-2 strain produced chitinase that might have conferred biocontrol properties on chickpea. The overall growth of plants via dual inoculation was significantly (P = 0.05) greater than that for control and single inoculations in a pot trial, indicating the positive synergistic effect of co-inoculation of PSB and PSF for crop improvement, which could be useful for farmers and sustainable agriculture.