MYCOPATH, Vol 21, No 1 (2023)

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Survivability and plant growth promoting traits of Rhizobium aegyptiacum under the stress of fungicides and insecticides

Sukriti Chandra, Dipjyoti Chakraborty

Abstract


Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) production relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides which have several drawbacks. Biofertilizers provide an eco-friendly alternative, however, growth of the bio-inoculant is often hindered by the chemical residues of insecticides and fungicides present in the soil. In this study, we evaluated the growth of a potential plant growth-promoting bacterium Rhizobium aegyptiacum, in the presence of the fungicide bavistin (50% carbendazim) and the insecticide chlorpyriphos 20 EC.  A decrease in the growth of R. aegyptiacum was observed with increase in concentration of the fungicide and the insecticide. A 33.7% of growth reduction was observed under 3 times of the recommended dose of carbendazim. Likewise, in the presence of chlorpyriphos 20 EC, 10.6, 21.7 and 50.01% growth was inhibited at 1X, 2X and 3X of recommended dose, respectively. In the absence of fungicide and insecticide, the phosphate solubilization index was determined to be 3.21, which reduced to 2.53 under 3X chlorpyriphos treatment and 2.90 under 3X carbendazim treatments. The lowest IAA production (17.8 μg mL-1) was observed in 3X chlorpyriphos treatment. HCN production was also detected in the presence of both insecticide and fungicide.  Thus, R. aegyptiacum was found to retain phosphate solubilization, HCN production and IAA production capacity in the presence of up to three times the recommended dosage of the bavistin and chlorpyriphos 20 EC.  R. aegyptiacum can be recommended as bio-inoculum in chickpea cultivation in agricultural fields contaminated with high concentrations of insecticides and pesticides.

 

 


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