THE EFFECT OF SEED INOCULATION BY RHIZOTORFIN STRAINS ON CHICKPEA PRODUCTIVITY IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE ROSTOV REGION

Abstract

The article presents the study results of seed inoculation by specific strains Mesorhizobiumciceri on number and weight of chickpea root nodules, productivity and nutrition value of chickpea cultivated in the southern nature-climatic part of the Rostov region.  The study was conducted on the fields of FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” (in the laboratory of cultivation technology of row crops) located in the southern part of the Rostov region in 2015–2016. The soil of the plot was heavy loamy carbonate blackearth (chernozem) with 7.0 рН, 3.2% of humus, 18–25 of P2O5 mg/kg of soil and 350–400 of K2O mg/kg of soil. The object of the study was a chickpea variety ‘Volgogradsky 10’, approved to use in the Rostov region. The strains of nodule bacteria (Rhyzotorfin) were developed and presented by the FSBSI All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology (the laboratory of ecology of symbiotic and associative rhizobacteria). Agroclimatic conditions of chickpea vegetation period ranged throughout the years of study that allowed estimating chickpea productivity without fear or favor. The use of Rhyzotorfin strains resulted in increasing preservation of plants for harvesting, improving seed productivity (seed-weight per plant, 1000-kernel weight) and increasing grain productivity (with the increase on 0.24–0.51 t/ha compared with the control). Large yields of fodder units and raw protein per unit area testified the improvement of nutrition value of chickpea kernels, and the increase of these traits to the control was 0.33–0.68 t/ha and 26.5-93.1 kg/ha respectively.