Development of Banana Peel Powder as Organic Carrier based Bioformulation and Determination of its Plant Growth Promoting Efficacy in Rice Cr100g

Abstract

Agriculture is the primary source of income for more than 50 % of the Indian population and the current challenge in the agricultural industry is the increased crop production with sustainable agricultural practices from the shrinking cropland area. Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been used as a bio inoculants for increasing the crop yield and the effectiveness of PGPR as biofertilizers majorly depends on the selection of the best carrier material, proper formulation of microorganisms and mode of delivery of the formulation. So, the present study investigates the effect of PGPR bacterial strains isolated from the Siruvani forest region, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. We have tested the efficacy of these PGPR strains using both in vitro seed germination assay and in vivo pot culture studies in CR100G rice seeds. We have used the banana peel powder (Patent No: 202041010982) as a novel organic carrier material for the development of bioformulation, along with talc as an inorganic carrier material to perform the in vivo study. The results showed that the rice plants treated with banana peel powder based bioformulation gives the highest shoot length (15.78 cm) when compared to the control (10.48 cm) on the 14th day, 21st and 45th day of seed seeding. The grain yield also increased in the Non-Enriched Banana Single (NEBS) bacterium group (125%) when normalized with the control. Thus, our current study suggests that Banana peel powder could be the better approach to be used as an organic carrier material for the development of Biofertilizers in future.