Synergistic Effect of Microbially Enriched Farm Yard Manure on Growth, Biomass and Nutrient Dynamics of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Microbial enrichment of organic manure is a highly sustainable strategy for enhancing leguminous crop productivity. A pot-culture experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of farmyard manure (FYM) enriched with individual and multi-strain microbial inoculants—phosphate-solubilising bacteria (PSB), Azotobacter, Rhizobium, and Bacillus circulans—for improving the morphological growth, biomass accumulation, and nutrient assimilation of chickpea (var. RVG-202). Before sowing, a 30-day incubation period showed that the consortium treatment (T6) recorded the highest viable microbial population (10.2 × 105 CFU/g) in FYM. The crop was harvested at 65 days after sowing (DAS). The consortium treatment was superior to the individual-strain treatments and the uninoculated control. Application of the multi-strain consortium resulted in significantly greater plant height at 65 DAS (35.93 cm) and shoot dry weight (4.91 g/plant). Moreover, the Rhizobium and consortium treatments significantly enhanced root biomass compared with the other treatments. Straw nitrogen content did not differ significantly among treatments, possibly because of a nutrient-dilution effect; however, the consortium treatment resulted in significantly greater total uptake of nitrogen (60.39 mg/plant), phosphorus (17.18 mg/plant), and potassium (42.71 mg/plant). The findings indicate that enriching FYM with a suitable multi-strain microbial consortium creates a favourable microbial environment that enhances root biomass, vegetative growth, and nutrient acquisition in chickpea, indicating its potential for bio-organic crop nutrition under controlled pot-culture conditions.