Wheat (Triticum aestivum) Establishment Methods and Microbial Inoculation for Improving Soil Microbial Properties and Crop Productivity

Adoption of innovative crop establishment practices relies on the type of impact on soil-plant-water complex, rather than just crop productivity. Hence, a field experiment was conducted to study the impact of wheat establishment methods (WEMs) on soil biological properties as well as crop and water productivity. Three wheat establishment methods (WEMs), viz., drill-sown wheat (DW), wheat intensification system (WIS) and zero till-drill wheat (ZTDW) were selected along with two sources of nutrients, viz. chemical fertilizers and microbial inoculation Significant changes in the soil and plant-related aspects, particularly an improvement in soil microbiological properties such as acetylene reduction activity (ARA) (2.7-11.8%), soil chlorophyll (0.6-21.1%), dehydrogenase activity (1.1-10.8%), microbial biomass carbon (0.5-2.1%) and alkaline phosphatase activity (1.3-9.0%) at 90 days after sowing (DAS) in ZTDW over DW and WIS were recorded in the two-year field study. The highest values were observed with the application of 75% recommended dose of nutrients (RDN) (90 kg nitrogen ha(-1) and 19.35 kg phosphorus ha(-1)) + Anabaena-Pseudomonas biofilm formulation + Zn. The soil microbiological parameters such as dehydrogenase activity, microbial biomass carbon and alkaline phosphatase activity also showed a significant increase due to the application of 100% RDN indicating that the application of fertilizers induced beneficial changes in soil-plant-water system. Interestingly, microbial inoculation had an economic impact on wheat which recorded an increase in grain yield by 200-230 kg ha(-1) and water productivity by 0.45-0.53 kg ha-mm(-1). The contribution of zero till-drill wheat to improvement in grain yield and water productivity was 240-260 kg ha(-1) and 0.54-0.58 kg ha-mm(-1), respectively. ZTDW and application of Anabaena-Pseudomonas biofilm formulation with 75% RDN led to significant and positive impacts on the biological activities in the rhizosphere of wheat.