Yield and Nutrient Uptake of Soybean (Glycine max (L) Merr) as Influenced by Phosphate Solubilizing Microorganisms

Phosphorus (P) is a plant nutrient, which is rapidly made immobile and less available for plant use after addition to the soil as a soluble fertilizer. Although the presence of soil microorganisms capable of solubilizing phosphate has been known for many years, their isolation and use as crop inoculants have met with only limited success. Hence a Pot experiment was conducted using Phosphate Solubilizing Microorganisms (PSM) isolated from the rhizosphere soil to investigate their effect on releasing unavailable 'P' and improving growth parameters, with a particular focus on soybean crop. Yield and nutrient uptake, nodulation efficiency and the available 'P' content in soil were significantly enhanced showing the positive effect of microbial inoculation. Inoculations along with rock phosphate(RP) application further increased the yield and were comparable with the treatments receiving superphosphate(SP) alone, indicate the possibility of replacing the SP with RP.