V. SRINIVAS, S. RAHMAN, W. PRATYUSHA AND S. GOPALAKRISHNAN*

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru 502 324, Telangana, India.

ABSTRACT

This study highlights the potential of 26 different strains of beneficial microorganisms, including 19 Streptomyces sp. (CAI-13, CAI-17, CAI-21, CAI-24, CAI-26, CAI-68, CAI-78, CAI-85, CAI93, CAI-121, CAI-127, CAI-140, CAI-155, KAI-26, KAI-

27, KAI-32, KAI-90, KAI-180 and MMA-32) and 7 system of rice intensification (SRI) bacterial isolates (SRI-156, SRI-158, SRI-178, SRI-211, SRI-229, SRI-305, and SRI-360), in enhancing the nutrient content of chickpea grains. These beneficial microorganisms have been found to be effective in various crops such as chickpea, pigeonpea, sorghum, rice, pearl millet, tomato, and chili. The field experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of these plant growth-promoting actinobacteria on seed nutrition in chickpea. The results showed that inoculating the seeds with these microorganisms significantly improved the nutritional values of the chickpea seeds compared to the un-inoculated control. All the Streptomyces sp. were found to enhance the crude protein (up to 12.4%), crude fiber (up to 46.3%), crude fat (up to 33.3%), and total ash (up to 25%) contents of the seeds over the uninoculated control seeds. The bacterial strains also improved the crude protein (up to 13.8%), crude fiber (up to 49.4%), crude fat (up to 19.3%), and total ash (up to 14.3%). Hence, it is concluded that beneficial microbes can serve as a complementary sustainable tool for the existing biofortification strategies.

KEYWORDS: Plant growth-promoting actinobacteria, System of rice intensification (SRI), Streptomyces sp. Chickpea, Biofortification Minerals.