Abstract:
Field experiment was carried out during the 2018 cropping season at the Teaching and Research
Farm of Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi to determine the effect of methods of
application of rhizobacteria and phosphate fertilizer rates on the growth and yield of soybean.
Treatments were four rates of phosphate fertilizer (0, 20, 40, and 60 kg P2O5 ha-1) and three
rhizobacteria inoculant application methods (zero, seed and soil). The crop was grown to
maturity and harvested. Data collected were number of leaves, Leaf Area, Leaf Area Index, Net
Assimilation Rate, Crop Growth Rate, Days to 50% flowering, Total Dry Matter, number of
nodules, nodules weight, seed yield and 100 seed weight. The collected data were subjected to
the analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5 % level of probability using GenStat 17th Edition.
Significant differences in means were separated using Fischers Least Significant Difference [FLSD (0.05)].
The results from the study showed that combined application of rhizobacteria and phosphate
fertilizer at 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 increased leaf area index and total dry matter yield of soybean
significantly (P<0.05) with leaf area index of 10.19 and total dry matter of 72 g per plant as
compared to leaf area index at 0 kg P2O5 ha-1, 20 kg P2O5 ha-1, 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 (7.97, 8.93
and 9.73) dry matter at 0 kg P2O5 ha-1, 20 kg P2O5 ha-1, 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 (16.6g, 59.4g and
65.2g) per plant. The result of this study showed combination application of rhizobacteria
inoculation and phosphate significantly enhanced nodulation from 43 nodules in un-inoculated
control to 156 and 175 nodules per plant in rhizobacteria inoculated and phosphate treatments.
The result of the study showed that combined application method of seed inoculation of
rhizobacteria at 100g per 15kg of seed at 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 phosphate was more economical and
had more yield benefits than single application and therefore, stand recommended |
