CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

It is a significant grain legume that is high in protein that is grown worldwide. After
cereals, pulses are the second most significant agricultural group. Cicer aritinum is the
scientific name for chickpeas, which are a part of the leguminous family and have their
origins in South West Asia. It is an annual grain-legume crop that is diploid and self-
pollinating. It is divided into two main categories: Kabuli and Desi. While Kabuli
feature broad beaked seeds with white or dark yellow seed coat colours and are larger in
size with smoother seed coats, the majority of Desi varieties are small, angular in shape,
dark in seed colour, and rough in seed coat. Grams of the Kabuli variety are often grown
in temperate climates, whilst those of the Desi variety are grown in semi-arid climates.
While desi type gram is grown in the semi-arid tropics, Kabuli type gram is primarily
grown in temperate regions (Anonymous, 2016). It is thought that this light brown pulse
provides a good source of protein.

Pulses improves the physio-chemical and biological characteristics of soil. Pulses play a
significant role in maintaining soil productivity. They also boost soil nitrogen content by
capturing more atmospheric nitrogen in their root nodules. It is a significant grain-
legume that is grown worldwide and has a greater protein content. Essential amino acids
such as isoleucine, leucine, lysine, valine, and aniline are found in its seeds, and the
protein is very easily digested (70–90%). According to Chandra et al. (2020), the seed
has roughly 18–22% protein, 61-62% carbohydrates, 4.5% fat, 280 mg/100 g calcium,
12.3 mg/100 g iron, and 301 mg/100 g phosphorus.

The average yield was 1038.4 kg/ha, the area was 13.71 Mha, and the global gram
production was 14.24 Mt per year (Anonymous, 2019a). The world's largest producer of
grams is India. It accounts for over 70% of the world's land and 67% of its production.
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan are India's three main gram-growing
states (Chandra et al., 2020). It is grown in 9.44 Mha of land in India, yielding 10.13 Mt
and an average productivity of 1073 kg/ha. With an average productivity of 1344 kg/ha
and an area of 3.43 million hectares, Madhya Pradesh is the most productive state in
India, accounting for 45.54% of the nation's overall production and 36.73% of its total
area (Anonymous, 2019b).
Chickpeas are grown extensively in warm temperate and subtropical climates and are
regarded as the third most important pulse in the world.

By boosting the quantity and biological activity of helpful microorganisms in the

rhizosphere, biofertilizers are carrier-based preparations that include beneficial
microorganisms in a viable form and are meant to be applied to seeds or soil to promote
soil fertility and plant growth. By fixing atmospheric nitrogen, dissolving insoluble soil
phosphates, and releasing plant development chemicals into the soil, they raise the
fertility level of the soil (Venkatachalam, 2008). According to Khan et al. (2007),
biofertilizers are sustainable, economical, and environmentally beneficial sources of
plant nourishment. Another name for these is microbial inoculants. Microbial inoculants
come in a variety of forms. Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), blue
green algae, azolla, phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB), and other inoculants are
some of the most significant. Since rhizobium inoculants symbiotically fix atmospheric
nitrogen, they are frequently employed as biofertilizers to increase chickpea growth and
yield. According to Bhuiyan et al. (1998), rhizobium injection enhanced nodulation and
seed yields by up to 35%. According to Gupta and Namdeo (1996b), chickpea seed
yields rose by 9.6-27.9% when Rhizobium was inoculated into the seeds.

Globally, a significant constraint on high-yielding crops is nitrogen (N) deficit

(Salvagiotti et al., 2008; Namvar et al., 2011). A nitrogen shortage causes chlorosis,
slower growth, and lower yield (Caliskan et al., 2008; Erman et al., 2011). Increasing
the usage of biofertilizers like Rhizobium can lessen the negative impacts on the
environment and the need for artificial fertilizers. In order to eradicate environmental
contamination, biofertilization is crucial (Chemining & Vessey, 2006; Erman et al.,
2011). The symbiotic N2 fixation mechanism allows chickpeas to meet a large
percentage (4–85%) of their nitrogen needs when they are grown alongside compatible
and efficient Rhizobium strains. It is well established that inoculating seeds with
Rhizobium improves the growth, yield, nodulation, and N uptake of legume crops.
Because there aren't many high-yielding varieties or appropriate rhizobial strains that
can fix atmospheric nitrogen through a biological nitrogen fixation process, the average
chickpea yield is just 746 kg/ha. The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)
has generated a good variety of chickpea cultivars. Utilizing improved colonization of
the roots and rhizospheres through the application of efficient nitrogen-fixing bacterial
strains to the seed or rhizosphere presents a significant opportunity to boost its
production. This can help cut down on the need of chemical nitrogenous fertilizers,
which are quite expensive in poor nations like our own.

Rhizobium and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) co-inoculation improves chickpea

output, nodulation, plant height, and seed protein. PSB and Rhizobium are essential for
P-solubilization and N2-fixation. Phosphorus availability in the soil has been observed
to improve when effective strains of P-solubilizing bacterial species, including Bacillus
megaterium by phosphaticum, Bacillus polymyxa, Penicillium digitatum, Pseudomonas,
and Aspergillus, are inoculated in the rhizosphere (Gaur, 1990).

Many chickpea disease are caused by soil-borne fungal infections, which also
significantly lower yields. It is now a significant issue. Numerous soil-borne plant
pathogenic fungi have been discovered to be controlled by several bacterial strains,
including Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and more recently, Rhizobium spp. (Siddiqui, 2006).
In both legume and nonlegume plants, the Rhizobium group's Rhizobium
leguminosarum, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, and Sinorhizobium meliloti have been
shown to significantly suppress the growth of harmful fungus such Macrophomina
phaseolina, R. solani, and Fusarium sp. According to Domsch et al. (2007), R. solani is
a soil-borne fungal pathogen that seriously damages a wide variety of agricultural crops
across the globe. Because of their ecological nature, wide host range, and high survival
rate as latent spores, such as sclerotia and chlamydospores, under various environmental
circumstances, soil-borne pathogens are challenging to treat. In addition to these, it has
been observed that rhizobia create chemicals that encourage plant growth, such as
auxins, cytokinins, and gibberellins (Sheng, 1993).

The importance of soil microorganisms in providing the necessary nutrients for plant
growth and development is a well-established fact. The species that participate in the
cycle of nitrogen and phosphorus are more common among them. Thus, agronomists are
interested in using microorganisms as biofertilizers, fixing nitrogen in the atmosphere,
dissolving accessible soil phosphate, or creating phytohormones. The efficiency of
biofertilizers in increasing productivity and cost-effectively preserving soil fertility has
been demonstrated by recent research projects on the subject conducted across the
nation.
An environmentally sound and economically appealing way to improve internal sources
and decrease external inputs is through biological nitrogen fixation, a microbial process
that transforms atmospheric nitrogen into a form that plants can use. With their unique
and very effective relationship with Rhizobium, nodulated legumes constitute the most
significant atmospheric nitrogen fixing system, and attempts are underway to improve
the symbiotic system's effectiveness. When paired with various legume crops,
Rhizobium has the greatest capacity to fix nitrogen—up to 300 kg 6 N/ha/year has been
observed (Pal, 2002). A portion of this is made available to the host, while the
remainder benefits the next crop, increasing soil and crop productivity.

According to Peoples and Crasswell (1992), rhizobium can further increase cereal crop
yields by 0.5 to 3.0 t/ha, which is equivalent to a 30 to 350 percent increase over cereal
cropping sequence after mono-cropped legumes.

Since phosphorus availability is one of the most significant factors influencing the
effectiveness of biological nitrogen fixation, many researchers have also focused on this
topic. For plants to have a balanced diet, phosphorus is essential. In addition to
solubilizing inorganic phosphates found in soil or added as rock phosphate, phosphorus
solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) also mineralize organic phosphates found in soil
and contributed through crop residues and organic manures. In order to increase
agricultural plants' availability of phosphorus and boost their production, phosphate
solubilizing bacteria (PSB) inoculants are crucial. Additionally, phosphorus-solubilizing
bacteria boost chickpea yield by 10–30%. PSB enhanced the number of root nodules in
one crop season, which in turn boosted the chickpea production by 9 to 16 percent
(Gupta and Namdeo, 1997).

Inoculation of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza with Rhizobium has been shown to have
synergistic effects in cowpea, groundnut, lucern, clover, frenchbean, soybean, and
stylosanthus (Rasal et al., 1988; Soddi et al., 1994; Shrivastava and Ahlawat, 1995 and
Thakur and Panwar, 1997). Nodulation and nitrogen fixation are greatly increased by
vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza-Rhizobium interactions in a symbiotic connection as an
effective endophyte with host plant roots. Vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza can
occasionally cause a decrease in root nodulation, but overall nutrient uptake and
symbiotic nitrogen are enhanced in legume plants. Likewise, a dual inoculation of
phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and Rhizobium may aid in the plant's
acquisition of both phosphorus and nitrogen. (Shrivastava et al., 2000 and Balyan et al.,
2002) phosphorous. It has been discovered that co-inoculation of Rhizobium and
phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria enhances chickpea nodulation and nitrogen fixation
(Alagawadi and Gaur, 1988).

Biofertilizers are inexpensive, sustainable, and environmentally beneficial sources of

different plant nutrients. Chemical fertilizers promote plant development without
changing the properties of the soil. The possible application of biofertilizers enhanced
plant growth, productivity, and nutritional profiles while also enhancing resistance to
environmental stress. Soil degradation, nitrogen leaching, water contamination, and a
decrease in the amount of organic matter in the soil, as well as the population and
proliferation of beneficial microorganisms, might result from the exclusive use of
chemical fertilizers. In addition to them, chemical fertilizers may raise the price of
farming.

Long-term food security requires striking a balance between maintaining soil health,
increasing crop output, and environmental sustainability (Aulakh et al., 2005). However,
the use of excessive and unbalanced nutrients led to a decrease in nutrient-use
efficiency, which made fertilizer use unprofitable and created adverse atmospheric
impacts that increased the risk of health problems and climate change. Therefore,
managing and maintaining soil health in sustainable agriculture requires the integration
of organic, chemical, and biological sources of plant nutrient

The greatest way to increase soil nutrient availability and enhance plant nutrient uptake
is through the use of biofertilizers. These are distinguished according to the specific
nutrient availability issue. For example, nitrogenous biofertilizers, which include
Rhizobium, Azotobacter, and Azospirillum species, can fix atmospheric nitrogen. They
also contain phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) that solubilize phosphorus,
potassium solubilizing bacteria (KSB) that solubilize potassium, and zinc solubilizing
bacteria (ZSB) that solubilize zinc. These variants are available in both solid and liquid
consortia.

The two most important inputs for raising chickpea seed output are fertilizer and plant
protection (Singh & Bajpai, 1996). Crop production requires the balanced application of
nutrients, and crop yields are decreased by their unbalanced use. Crops can get nutrients
from any source, and it is recommended that foliar fertilization be utilized extensively to
address plant nutritional deficits brought on by an inadequate delivery of nutrients to the
roots (Frossard, Condron, Oberson, Sinaj & Fardeau, 2000). Farmers typically cultivate
chickpeas on marginal soils without fertilizer because they believe that, as a legume
crop, they don't require any nutrients (Prerana, Gethe, Gaikwad, Anarse & Harer, 2017).
Furthermore, farmers are ignorant of the relative significance of various inputs in
achieving large grain yields.

The present investigated entitled, “Effect of fertilizers along with biofertilizers

on growth and yield of chickpea” was conducted at the agriculture research farm of
Institute of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur
University, Gorakhpur with the following objectives:

1. To study the effect of fertilizers along with biofertilizers on the growth

of chickpea.
2. To study the effect of fertilizers along with biofertilizers on the yield of
chickpea.
3. To study about effect of fertilizers along with biofertilizers on economics
of chickpea.