Vol. 8, Issue 9 (2019)

Author(s):
Swati Sindhu, Monika Jangra, Anupma Dahiya and Rajesh Gera

Abstract:
Plants require various nutrients for their unremitting growth and reproduction, among those phosphorus, zinc and potassium plays a crucial role. Like most micronutrients, these are not easily available to the plants due to their highly insoluble nature which is a costly practice for the farmer, associated with loss of production. Twenty four chickpea rhizobial isolates were characterized for their potential to solubilize insoluble sources of zinc, phosphorus and potassium. Out of 24 isolates, ten rhizobial isolates were found to solubilize phosphate (41.66%), with a solubilization index ranging from 2.15 to 3.33. Sixteen and ten rhizobial isolates were found as zinc and potassium solubilizers with an index varied from 2.18 to 5.14 and 2.33 to 4.16, respectively. So, transformation of unavailable form of nutrients to available form by microbes is going to be an important approach for sustainable agriculture.