Vol. 11, Issue 8 (2022)

Author(s):
Amir Khan, Ajay Veer Singh, Rajeew Kumar, Bharti Kukreti, Vindhaya Bundela and Viabhav Kumar Upadhayay

Abstract:
The production of quality food in an environment-friendly way from diminishing land and water resources is a formidable challenge of this century. Besides quality, agricultural production needs to be increased significantly on a sustainable basis to meet the continuously increasing food demand of mushrooming human population. Wheat is a cereal crop that provides plenty of nutrition. In this era, people are avoiding chemical fertilizers and replacing them with beneficial microorganisms that are now widely adopted for intensive agriculture in many parts of the world, which can stimulate the growth of their associated host through increased mobility, uptake and enrichment of nutrients in the plants. Thus, the present investigation was performed in search of potential plant growth promoting rhizobacteria to enhance the growth and productivity of wheat. Three bacterial isolates were screened during the study for plant growth promotary traits, including zinc and phosphate solubilization, IAA, ammonia and HCN production. Afterward, a field trial was conducted with wheat. The results demonstrated that among all bacterial isolates, PAWR 28 and HRM29 performed superior as they improved plant height, grain yield, biological yield, percent harvest index and grains zinc and iron content. The correlation coefficient, cluster and principal component analysis demonstrated that the performance of PAWR 28 and HRM29 bacterial isolates were remarkable and positively enhanced agronomical parameters, zinc and iron biofortification in grains. The results of the present investigation proved the potential of bacterial isolate PAWR 28 and HRM29 under field conditions and might be utilized as a biofertilizer to enhance wheat productivity and nutrition.