AUTHOR=Manjunath Mallappa , Khokhar Anil , Chary Gajjala Ravindra , Singh Manmohanjit , Yadav Sushil Kumar , Gopinath Kodigal A. , Jyothilakshmi Narayana , Srinivas Karlapudi , Prabhakar Mathyam , Singh Vinod Kumar 

TITLE=Microbial consortia enhance the yield of maize under sub-humid rainfed production system of India

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1108492

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2023.1108492

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=<p>Plant beneficial microorganisms are being used to improve soil health and crop yield in different cropping systems. Maize is an important crop grown around the world for food, feed and raw material for various industries. The aim of the present study was to evaluate two microbial consortia <italic>viz</italic>., microbial consortia 1 (<italic>Pseudomonas putida</italic> P7 + <italic>Paenibacillus favisporus</italic> B30) and microbial consortia 2 (<italic>Pseudomonas putida</italic> P45 + <italic>Bacillus amyloliquefaciens</italic> B17) under field conditions for their suitability in improving maize yield under rainfed situations at Ballowal Saunkhri (Punjab) having sub-humid (Hot Dry) climatic conditions. Pooled analysis of three years field experiments data showed that, seed + soil application of microbial consortia 1 and 2 led to enhancement in grain yield of kharif maize by 27.78 and 23.21% respectively over uninoculated control. Likewise, significant increase in Benefit:Cost ratio as well as straw yield was also observed. The present investigation suggests that, microbial consortia would help in significantly improving the yield and economics of maize grown on inceptisols under rainfed conditions.</p>