Biozote-p Application under Zero Tillage Drill Wheat Planting Influenced Yield and Phosphorus use Efficiency of Wheat Crop

Abstract

The availability of phosphorus is limited in calcareous soil because of the chemical reaction between calcium and phosphorus by converting it into calcium phosphate. The application of phosphorus solubilizing bacteria as biofertilizer might help in the availability of phosphorus in soil.  So, this study was aimed to enhance phosphorus use efficiency (PUE), growth, and yield of wheat planted by zero tillage drill after rice harvest using biozote-P as a microbial inoculant. Three treatments (T₁ = Traditional wheat planting (control), T₂ = Zero-tillage Drill wheat planting, and T₃ = Zero-tillage Drill wheat planting + Biozote-P) were tested in the rice harvested field at Usta Muhammad, Balochistan during 2019-20. Each treatment was comprised of one acre and the collected data were subjected to descriptive statistics included minimum, maximum, mean, standard deviation, and standard error. The pre soil properties revealed that the soil was clayey, alkaline (pH>8.0) with low soil organic matter, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus contents. However, post soil properties showed increase in SOM with marginal level reduction in soil pH along with improvement in the availability of TN (0.051%) and P (4.31 mg kg^-1) in T3. The ZT and ZT+Biozote-P increased grain yield by 32.09 and 36.94% over traditional wheat planting. So, phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) was increased by 41.77 and 29.22% in T₃. It means that Biozote-P application under zero tillage drill improved PUE by 9.71% in comparison to sole zero tillage drill wheat planting. Subsequently, it is inferred that biozote-P (microbial inoculant) can be included in ZT wheat planting in rice-wheat cropping zone of Balochistan.