Efficacy of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae as inoculant on some legume crops for nitrogen nutrition in alluvial soil of West Bengal

摘要

The present investigation deals with the assessment on the ability of the nitrogen fixing bacteria, Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae to fix atmospheric nitrogen by biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Sixteen (16) different bacterial strains were tested in Congo red medium, Hofer's alkaline broth medium and Peptone glucose agar medium, to check the purity of the strains. The tested Rhizobium strains were again tested with Yeast Extract Mannitol (YEM) broth medium toidentify the superior strains among them. Finally, seven superior strainswere selected and tested against threedifferent legume crops (pea, lentil and faba bean) in pot culture. It was observed that inoculation of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. wcraeincreases nodule number, height of plant,fresh and dry weight of plant and root etc. in all the tested crops. The strain NL-20 was found to perform better over the other strains with respect to nitrogen percentage in plant, nodule number, fresh and dry weight of plantin the case of pea and lentil and the strain NV-12 was observed to be best in the case of faba bean.