Sartaj A. Wani

Potential Use of Azotobacter Chroococcum in Crop Production: An Overview

Research on Azotobacter chroococcum spp. in crop production has manifested its significance in plant nutrition and its contribution to soil fertility. The possibility of using Azotobacter chroococcum in research experiments as microbial inoculant through production of growth substances and their effects on the plant has markedly enhanced crop production in agriculture. Being soil bacteria, Azotobacteria genus synthesizes auxins, cytokinins, and GA–like substances, and these growth materials are the primary substances controlling the enhanced growth. These hormonal substances, which originate from the rhizosphere or root surface, affect the growth of the closely associated higher plants. In order to guarantee the high effectiveness of inoculants and microbiological fertilizers it is necessary to find the compatible partners, i.e. a particular plant genotype and a particular Azotobacter strain that will form a good association.

Azotobacter chroococcum – A Potential Biofertilizer in Agriculture: An Overview

Research on Azotobacter chroococcum spp. in crop production has manifested its significance in plant nutrition and its contribution to soil fertility. The possibility of using Azotobacter chroococcum in research experiments as microbial inoculant through production of growth substances and their effects on the plant has markedly enhanced crop production in agriculture. Being free living N2-fixer diazotroph, Azotobacteria genus synthesizes auxins, cytokinins, and GA like substances and these growth materials are the primary substances regulating the enhanced growth. It stimulates rhizospheric microbes, protects the plants from phyto-pathogens, improves nutrient uptake and ultimately boost up biological nitrogen fixation. These hormonal substances, which originate from the rhizosphere or root surface, affect the growth of the closely associated higher plants. In order to guarantee the high effectiveness of inoculants and microbiological fertilizers it is necessary to find the compatible partners, i.e. a particular plant genotype and a particular Azotobacter strain that will form a good association.

Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) Approaches in Flower Crops

Floriculture is a branch of horticulture concerning cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and floristry. It includes cut flowers, cut greens, bedding plant, houseplants, flowering garden and potted plants etc. The rising living standards and unabated urbanization in the present day the world has led to growing demand of flowers and their products thereby making the floriculture an important commercial trade. Commercial floriculture has higher potential per unit area than the field crops and is therefore evolving as a lucrative business all over the world (Misra and Sudip, 2016). The area and under floriculture in India are about International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 3 (2017) pp. 254-265 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Average Daily Gain in Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Yield Efficiency of Some Apricot Cultivars Grown in Himalayan Temperate Region

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) is an attractive, delicious and highly nutritious fruit being cultivated in temperate climates of all the continents of the world, Asia and Europe being the largest producers (Bhat et al., 2013). Distribution of cultivated apricot, its wild forms and allied species in temperate zone of Asia is confined between 33 o and 70 o east longitude and 53 o and 30 o north latitude (Kostina, 1936). In India, apricot is grown in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and to a limited extent in North-eastern hills. Its cultivation has not been successful in south India (Hayes, 1957). In Jammu and Kashmir the total production in the year 2016 was 14142 MT from an area of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 2915-2922 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Strategy for optimization of higher productivity and quality in field crops through micronutrients: A review

The importance of micronutrients has been realized widespread. Micronutrient deficiencies were observed in most of the Indian soils, where intensive agriculture is practiced. Micronutrients may be minor in terms of the amounts needed by the crop, but they can be major in terms of their impact on crop growth. Micronutrients often act as co-factors in enzyme systems and participate in vital functions in plants. Studies of the roles of nutrients in plants have involved several diagnostic criteria that address the accumulation of nutrients and their roles in plants. These criteria include visual diagnosis, plant analysis, biochemical tests, and soil tests. Factors such as soil pH, organic matter, temperature, moisture & texture are important in determining the availability of micronutrient. Scientific methods involving for correcting micronutrient deficiencies and toxicity in soils and in field crops. Foliar application combined with nano-biotechnology are an efficient methods applying nutrients directly to the plants without farming any intermediate complexes and may result in rapid and significant progress in the areas of fertilizer micronutrient development for their efficient delivery and production of abundant nutritious food.

Soil Health Indicators of Rhizospheric Soils of Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) Variety Delicious in Himalayan Kashmir

Rhizospheric soils are rich sources of nutrients, enzymes, proteins, beneficial microbes responsible for sustainable growth of the plants. They supply principal elements to the plant and also promote microbial activity in the soil and improve its structure, aeration, and water holding capacity, which in turn improve the soil capabilities to respond to inputs. This discourse deals with the evaluation of thirty composite soil samples collected from different apple orchards of Baramulla district of Kashmir valley and analyzed for soil characteristics (organic carbon content, total available N, P, K, S; EC, pH, total viable bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes count) which in turn were used as chemical and microbial indicators of rhizospheric soil health of apple orchards in Himalayan Kashmir. It was observed that the soil characteristics were significantly correlated.

Weathering and Approaches to Evaluation of Weathering Indices for Soil Profile Studies – An Overview

Weathering involves a gradual progressive physico-chemical and hydrothermal alterations of the original parent material and transformation to more stable minerals. Chemical weathering indices are commonly used for characterising weathering profiles by incorporating bulk major element oxide chemistry into a single metric for each element. The principal assumption in formulating chemical weathering indices is that the behavior of chemical elements is controlled solely by the degree of weathering. A comprehensive review of a great number of geochemical qualitative and quantitative weathering index approaches have been devised to quantify the changes most effectively to indicate mineralogical composition and mobilisation in the index properties of rock materials and evaluating through various related statistical analytical approaches. Understanding of the nature and indices of weathering within weathered profiles is of a paramount importance. Past conditions of physical and chemical weathering can be reliably inferred if application of the Chemical Index of Weathering is combined with a comprehensive facies analysis. The criteria applied in evaluating the utility of weathering indices on parent materials and weathering profiles and its applications for characterizing weathering profiles, soil fertility and understanding salinity and groundwater management determines its degree of scope.

An Appraisal of Conservation Tillage on the Soil Physical Properties

Farming systems today have many implications than before because of the growing concerns about agricultural sustainability and environment. Soil management is aimed at the maintenance of optimal soil physical quality for crop production. The conventional tillage practices resulted in losses of soil, water and nutrients, and degraded the soil with low organic matter content and a fragile physical structure. The conservation tillage in its many and varied forms holds promise for the sustainability of agricultural productivity and environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improvement in dynamic soil physical properties in general like soil aggregate stability, structure, soil strength, bulk density etc, that provides key information about the soil quality. All these aspects are reviewed with some detailed information on the benefits of conservation tillage. The aim of the present review is to analyze and discuss the conservation tillage and its impacts on physical aspects of soil health.