Effect of Bio-Stimulant (Plant Probiotics) on Growth, Yield and Microbial Activity of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Grown in Vertisol of Chhattisgarh

A field experiment was conducted to find out the effect of biostimulant (plant probiotics) on growth, yield, and the microbial activity of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) grown in vertisol during the rabi season (December–April) of 2022–23 at the Instructional Cum Research Farm, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. The RVG-202 variety of chickpea was used for the experiment, which was spaced in 45×10 cm. The experiment consists of seven treatments, viz., T1 (Control (without RDF)), T2 (100% RDF), T3 (1 L biostimulant + 200 L water acre-1), T4 (1 L biostimulant + 100 L water acre-1), T5 (1 L biostimulant + 300 L water acre-1), T6 (1 L biostimulant + 200 L water acre-1 + 100% RDF) and T7 (1 L Biostimulant + 200 L water acre-1 + 50% RDF) and was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. Data regarding the Plant height, shoot dry weight, nodule number, nodule dry weight, pod number, grain yield and stover yield, microbial population, NPK content in grain and stover were observed. The experimental result revealed that the application of biostimulant with a combination of 50% RDF was found to have a significant impact on the Plant height, shoot dry weight , nodule number, nodule dry weight, pod number, grain yield, microbial population and phosphorous content in grain whereas the highest stover yield, potassium content in grain and phosphorous content in stover is accumulated where 100% RDF was applied, but that nitrogen content in grain and stover and potassium content in stover were not significantly affected. According to the performance of the crop and the analysis of rhizosphere soil, it can be concluded that the most effective response and good results over the control was found in application of bio-stimulant at 1 L acre-1 along with 50% RDF (25:50:30 kg ha-1 N:P:K).