Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
control 23.9 g/100 g), lycopene (9.8 mg/100 g against control 8.3 mg/100 g) and
rate of pressure tolerance of fruits (2.84 kg/cm against control 1.35 kg/cm). These
results suggest that nursery application of
A. niger
SkNAn5 may improve quantity
and quality of tomato fruits.
4.6.5 Forest Trees
4.6.5.1 Bamboo and
Dalbergia sissoo
Co-inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and PS fungus
A. tubingensis
fungi significantly increased the P (150 %), K (67 %), Ca (106 %) and Mg (180 %),
whereas the Al and Fe content were significantly reduced by 50 and 60 %, respec-
tively, in shoot tissues of bamboo (
Dendrocalamus strictus
) plants grown in fly ash
as compared to control plants (Giridhar Babu and Reddy
2010
). A significant
increase in biomass production of
D. sissoo
was recorded when seedlings were
inoculated with
P. chrysogenum and Aspergillus
sp. and grown in pot culture under
polyhouse misting facility. Growth analysis revealed that NAR (net assimilation
rate) and LAR (leaf area ratio) differed with RGR (relative growth rate) in the
treatments. Application of selected microbes can lead to a successful establishment
of
D. sissoo
in nurseries, even in pot soils, and help in producing quality planting
material (Dash et al.
2013
) (Figs.
4.3
and
4.4
).
4.7 Conclusion and Assumption
The use of biofertilizers or microbial inoculants for replacing the efficacy of
chemical fertilizers has been found to be effective in reducing the cost of cultivation
and maintaining the natural fertility of soil. Therefore, utilization of PS fungi as
biofertilizer has gigantic potential for making use of fixed P present in the soil in
crop production without causing any harmful effects on aerial and soil environment.
Biofertilizers are more economical due to their low market prices compared to
synthetic fertilizers, helpful in improving soil structure and the restoration of
environment for leveraging agriculture. Research efforts are, therefore, required
for exploring new and better agronomic effectiveness of biofertilizers application
for profitable crops such as orchards, flowers and vegetables. Although PSMs are
abundant in many of the soils, isolation, identification and selection of PSMs have
yet not been successfully commercialized, and thus, its application is still limited.
There is therefore an urgent need to popularize the use of inexpensive and more
powerful biofertilizers, especially the use of PSM in sustainable crop production
across different agro-climatic regions of the world.
