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Description
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important leguminous crop grown worldwide and plays a significant role in humans’ dietary consumption. Alongside nitrogen (N), low phosphorus (P) availability within agricultural soils is one of the major factors limiting chickpea growth and productivity. The combined application of beneficial bacterial inoculants and Rock P-fertilizer could boost chickpea performance and productivity, increasing P-utilization efficiency and minimize nutrient losses under P-deficiency conditions. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of chickpea to two P-fertilizers forms (RP and TSP) under N2-fixer and P-solubilizer consortium inoculation to improve biological N fixation and P nutrition under P deficient conditions. Under inoculation, chickpea chlorophyll content and chlorophyll a fluorescence (RP+I and TSP+I) were increased compared to uninoculated treatments. The RP+I treatment increased both shoot and root dry weights by 48,80% and 72,68% respectively compared to the uninoculated RP fertilized control. Indeed, the bacterial consortium contributed to enhancing root morphological traits (e.g., root volume, surface area, and diameter) of all inoculated treatments versus the uninoculated treatments. Furthermore, soil available P and root inorganic P were significantly improved in RP+I by 162,84% and 73,24% respectively, compared to uninoculated RP control. Our research outcomes suggest that the co-inoculation of chickpea with N2-fixing and P-solubilizing bacteria improve biomass yield and nutrients-uptake. Eventually, enhancing chickpea agrophysiological performance, especially in restricted P-availability conditions.
Keywords: Chickpea varieties, consortium, beneficial bacterial inoculants, phosphorus deficiency, Rock P-fertilizer, nutrient uptake.
