Vol. 11, Issue 11 (2022)

The study entitled ‘Mitigating water stress in summer rice using beneficial root endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica’ was undertaken at College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2019 - 2021. The objective of the study was to assess the performance of P. indica colonized rice under different levels of moisture stress during summer. The treatments included colonizing with P. indica [p1- P. indica colonized rice and p₂- non-colonized rice (control)], three irrigation intervals [i1- 30 mm CPE (cumulative pan evaporation), i₂- 35 mm CPE and i₃- 40 mm CPE] and two irrigation depths (d₁- to a depth of 1.5 cm and d₂- to a depth of 3 cm). Colonization with P. indica significantly influenced the number of tillers m^-2 with 10.64, 16 and 15.69 per cent increase in tiller production at 30, 45 and 60 DAT respectively, compared to non-colonized plants. Colonized plants irrigated at 30 mm CPE to a depth of 3 cm evinced the maximum leaf area index (4.54) at 60 DAT and dry matter production (4559.26 kg ha^-1) at harvest.