Plant growth-promoting actinobacteria: a new strategy for enhancing sustainable production and protection of grain legumes

Grain legumes are a cost-effective alternative for the animal protein in improving the diets of the poor in South-East Asia and Africa. Legumes, through symbiotic nitrogen fixation, meet a major part of their own N demand and partially benefit the following crops of the system by enriching soil. In realization of this sustainability advantage and to promote pulse production, United Nations had declared 2016 as the “International Year of pulses”. Grain legumes are frequently subjected to both abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in severe yield losses. Global yields of legumes have been stagnant for the past five decades in spite of adopting various conventional and molecular breeding approaches. Furthermore, the increasing costs and negative effects of pesticides and fertilizers for crop production necessitate the use of biological options of crop production and protection. The use of plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria for improving soil and plant health has become one of the attractive strategies for developing sustainable agricultural systems due to their eco-friendliness, low production cost and minimizing consumption of non-renewable resources. This review emphasizes on how the PGP actinobacteria and their metabolites can be used effectively in enhancing the yield and controlling the pests and pathogens of grain legumes

Effect of Nitrogen Sources on the Yield of Different Blackgram (Vigna mungo) Varieties

In Bangladesh, the average yield of blackgram is not satisfactory level. There are many reasons for a lower yield of blackgram. Nitrogen and weed management in winter season is of them. This study is to find out the effect of nitrogen sources on the yield of different black gram varieties. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot Design with three replications. Nitrogen source was assigned to main plots and varieties to sub-plots. The field experiment was conducted at the Agronomy field of Central Research Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from September 2014 to January 2015. The experiment consisted of two factors such as nitrogen sources and blackgram varieties. The treatments were as follows: Factor A: nitrogen sources (3 types) viz. T1: prilled urea, T2: biofertilizer, T3: no nitrogen (control) and Factor B: varieties (4 types) viz. V1: BARI mash-1, V2: BARI mash-2, V3: BARI mash-3 and V4: local mash. In case of different nitrogen sources, the highest grain yield and harvest index (1.45 t ha-1 and 40.05%) was found from biofertilizer application. This treatment also showed highest pod length (5.28 cm), pods plant-1 (34.80), seeds pod-1 (7.08) and 1000-seed weight (40.55 g). Among the blackgram varieties, BARI Mash-3 gave the highest pod length (5.60 cm), pods plant-1 (39.93), seeds pod-1 (7.57) and 1000-seed weight (45.73 g), grain yield and harvest index (1.49 t ha-1 and 40.49%). These findings we observed that BARI Mash-3 applied with biofertilizer produced the highest grain yield and harvest index (1.84 t ha-1 and 48.04%)