Effects of Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria, Azotobacter spp. and Azospirillum spp. on the Growth of Rice Oryza sativa L.

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effect of Azotobacter and Azospirillum inoculants on the growth of rice, pot experiment with four treatments (Azotobacter sugarcane 1-T1, Azotobacter maize 2- T2, Azospirillum sugarcane 3-T3 and Azospirillum maize 2 -T4) and one control (without bacteria) each with six replicates was carried out in Zoology Department, University of Mandalay during March to November 2011. The results indicated that the shoot length of treatment increased over control with a range of 8.04 to 33.14% and the root length of treatments increased over control with a range of 2.13 to 132.89%. The fresh shoot weight and fresh root weight of treatments increased over control with a range of 0 to 1160% and 0 to 462.92% respectively. The dry shoot and root weights of treatments at maturity stage increased significantly (p<0.01) over control with a range of 53.31 to 109.28% and 163.89 to 280.56% respectively. In this study, panicle length and total seed numbers per panicle of treatments increased significantly (p<0.01) over control with a range of 18.75 to 35.02% and 96.55 to 114.83% respectively. Azotobacter sugarcane 1 is found to be the most effective species for the growth of rice and all tested bacteria could be useful as biofertilizers to increase the productivity of crops