Yield Response of Cicer arientium L. as Influenced by Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Rainfed Loess Soils

Climate change has greatly affected rainfall distribution and intensity in the rainfed areas of the world which has created water shortage and soil moisture deficiency and causing crop yield reduction. Soil microorganisms have great potential to improve soil fertility and enhance plant nutrition by minimizing the damages of water stress since water stress inhibits plant growth due to higher concentrations of ethylene in rhizosphere. Rhizobacteria containing ACC-deaminase, assist plant growth to tolerate these injurious effects. To test this hypothesis under rainfed sloppy lands an experiment was conducted consisting of treatments including gypsum, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), farmyard manure (FYM) and, PGPR+FYM in randomized complete block design (RCBD) arrangement to assess their effectiveness for improving growth of chickpea and changes in soil characteristics. The results of this experiment revealed that selected amendments increased grain and straw yield significantly (p ≤ 0.05). The mean maximum grain yield (1519 Kg ha-1) and biomass yield (1862 Kg ha-1) was recorded where PGPR was applied in combination with FYM. It was observed that grain yield was enhanced 6, 11, 13 and 19 % and biomass yield was increased 12, 15, 17 and 23% by gypsum, PGPR, FYM and PGPR+FYM, respectively over control (zero addition). Application of amendments enhanced soil organic matter and saturation percentage up to 27 and 5%, respectively while soil pH and EC were reduced by 2 and 18%, respectively. So, it was concluded that soil amendments especially PGPR can be used effectively to combat the soil moisture shortage under stress conditions to enhance the soil and crop productivity in rainfed conditions under changing climate scenario.