Rhizobium strains of Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) performance under different agroecological conditions

Abstract

To assess the performance of Rhizobium strains under different ecological conditions in pigeonpea, totally seven Rhizobium isolates were obtained from four AICRP centres viz., Kalaburagi (KKR13 & KKR6), Akola (GAKPR-2-19 & GAKPR-7-20), Kanpur (IIPR-PR-315) and Ludhiana (V5ERB) along with the Check strainGAKPR-16 were used for the experiment. Pigeon pea seeds were treated with the Rhizobium isolates and sown. Observations were recorded at 45th DAS to assess their effect on plant growth parameters viz., number of nodules / plants, root length, shoot length, nodule dry weight and yield parameters were recorded during harvest Crop was harvested at 65 DAS and yield parameters viz., number of pods per plant, plant dry weight and yield were recorded and tabulated. Among the treatments T3 recorded a greater number of nodules / plant (18.33 / plant) and nodule dry weight (17.33 g/plant) which is significantly higher than other isolates. The same treatment recorded the highest root length (20.00 cm). The treatments T6 recorded the maximum shoot length of 88.00 cm. Among the different treatments, T3 performed better and recorded the higher values for yield parameters. The highest yield of 1173.66 kg/ha was recorded by T3 followed by T4 treatment which recorded 1161.30 kg/ha of seed yield.