Role of plant growth promoting fungi and doses of chemical fertilizers in improving agronomic response for sustainable wheat crop production

Abstract

Plant growth promoting fungi PGPF is considered a major biological technique that results in significant plant growth and yield. Use of high doses of chemical fertilizers increased cost of crop production and environmental pollution. PGPF could be a reliable alternative to reduce application of agrochemicals such as chemical fertilizers in modern agriculture. The present study evaluated the role of these fungi with chemical fertilizer of DAP applied through different doses in agronomic response of production of 2 varieties of Wheat (Ibaa99 and Rasheed) at 2 agricultural seasons 2019-2020-2021. Field plots conducted during 2019-2020 cropping season, to evaluate the role of adding fungal isolate called PGPF-AT with doses of DAP were (0, 50 and 100%) in 0, 120 and 240 Kg ha-1 respectively, compared with (Commercial Biofertilizer) called Natrusoil as positive control on wheat var. Ibaa99 to improve growth and yield attributes. The study was repeated in the 2020-2021 cropping seasons with var. Rasheed (to discover a variety of effects and confirm results). The results revealed that treatment PGPF-AT was exerted a highly significant increase without differences between doses of DAP 120, and 240 Kg ha-1 compared to untreated plots for both Ibaa 99 and Rasheed varieties attributes: no. of plants m-2, plant height (cm), plant dry weight (g), no. of tillers plant-1, no. of spike plant-1, spike length (cm), spike weight (g), no. of seeds spike-1, weight of 100 grain (g) and grain yield Kg m-2 in addition to fertilizer use efficiency (Kg Kg-1) in both cropping seasons.