The influence of different bacteria consortium and irrigation levels on yield and physiological attributes of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) grown under organic farming conditions

Background: Inorganic fertilizers help to prevent yield and quality losses in agricultural production; how-ever, adversely affect soil quality and human health. The rising public awareness is switching the produc-tion focus from conventional to organic farming. Therefore, obtaining higher yields under organic farming conditions is inevitable. Different bacterial consortia have been found helpful in improving crop yields under stressful and benign environments. Therefore, current study tested the impact of two bacterial consortia on yield and physiological attributes of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) grown under organic farming conditions with two different irrigation levels. Methods: Two bacteria consortiums [(consortium 1 = Bacillus megaterium RCK-869 + Pantoea agglomerans RK-120 + Paenibacillus polymyxa RCK-540 + Bacillus subtilis RCK-561), (consortium 2 = Azospirillum, Rhizobium, Azotobacter and Acetobacter) and two irrigation levels, i.e., 50 and 100% of the required mois-ture were included in the study. Data on chlorophyll index, flag leaf area, soluble sugar content, plant height, protein ratio, and grain yield were drecorded. Results: The GY in bacteria-free treatment was 3512.0 kg ha -1, which increased to 4868.3 kg ha -1 with the application of bacteria consortium 1. The application of 50% irrigation significantly reduced the yield and related traits, whereas the application of bacteria consortium 1 significantly improved these traits under normal and 50% irrigation. Overall, higher values of the studied traits were recorded during 1st year than 2nd year. The decrease in total precipitation and relative humidity, and the increase in temper-ature in the second year caused a decrease in grain yield, agronomic and physiological parameters. Conclusion: Bacteria consortium consisting of Bacillus bacteria significantly improved the yield and related traits of durum wheat under deficit and normal irrigation. Therefore, bacterial consortium con-sisting of B. megaterium + P. agglomerans + P. polymyxa + B. subtilis could be used to improve durum wheat production under organic farming conditions and deficit irrigation. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study investigated the impact of two bacterial consortia on yield and physiological attributes of durum wheat under organic farming conditions. The results showed that the application of bacterial consortium 1 significantly improved the yield and related traits, while 50% irrigation reduced the yield and related traits.