Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.1
Top pulse (chickpea and lentil)-producing countries (in metric tonnes)
Chickpea
Lentil
Country
2010
2011
2010
2011
2012
India
7,480,000
8,220,000
1,031,600
943,800
950,000
Australia
602,000
513,338
140,000
379,659
463,000
Pakistan
561,500
496,000
DNA
DNA
DNA
Turkey
530,634
487,477
447,400
405,952
438,000
Burma
441,493
473,102
DNA
DNA
DNA
Ethiopia
284,640
322,839
80,952
128,009
151,500
Iran
267,768
290,243
100,174
71,808
85,000
United States
87,952
99,881
392,675
214,640
240,490
Canada
128,300
90,800
1,947,100
1,531,900
1,493,620
Mexico
131,895
72,143
DNA
DNA
DNA
Nepal
DNA
DNA
151,757
206,969
208,201
China
DNA
DNA
125,000
150,000
145,000
Syria
DNA
DNA
77,328
112,470
130,229
World
10,897,040
11,497,054
4,686,673
4,386,870
4,522,097
Source
: UN Food and Agriculture Organizations
DNA
data not available
8.4 Response of PSM Inoculation to Crops
The discovery of P-solubilizing potentials besides other growth-promoting activi-
ties (Table
8.3
) among P-solubilizers has been one of the most attractive biological
traits that have resulted in reducing the dependence on synthetic P fertilizers and
consequently protecting soil fertility and environmental safety from chemical
toxicity. And therefore, the use of PS bacteria isolated from different soils (Saha
and Biswas
2009
; Hui et al.
2011
; Xiang et al.
2011
; Minaxi et al.
2012
) belonging
largely to the genera pseudomonads (Behbahani
2010
; Bholay et al.
2012
), bacilli
(Erkovan et al.
2010
; Sanjotha et al.
2011
), rhizobia (Chandra et al.
2007
; Marra
et al.
2011
), and
Azotobacter
(Yi et al.
2008
; Audipudi et al.
2012
) etc. as an
alternative to chemical fertilizer has generated greater interest among agronomists
than microbiologists to employ such microbes in practical field application for
enhancing the crop production (Kumari et al.
2009
; Erkovan et al.
2010
;Yu
et al.
2011
; Gupta et al.
2012
) in different agroecological niches (Khan
et al.
2007
; Vega
2007
). However, direct inoculation of free PS bacteria into soil
is not easy to maintain the survival of bacterial cells around roots of plants since
they are easily susceptible to a variety of environmental variables such as temper-
ature, humidity, and salt stress (Wu et al.
2012
). Also, the variable response of PSB
inoculation to plant is mainly due to the differences in the quality of inoculants
applied under pot/field soils. Considering the vast and varied activities, researchers
around the world have either attempted or included the use of single or mixture of
this novel group of economically feasible biological materials in agronomic oper-
ation for sustainable pulse and cereal production.
