Soil-Applied Boron Combined with Boron-Tolerant Bacteria (Bacillus sp. MN54) Improve Root Proliferation and Nodulation, Yield and Agronomic Grain Biofortification of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Chickpea is widely cultivated on calcareous sandy soils in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan; however, widespread boron (B) deficiencies these significantly decreases its productivity. Soil application B could improve chickpea yield grain-B concentration. However, optimizing suitable level necessary due to a narrow deficiency toxicity range B. Nonetheless, the co-application B-tolerant bacteria (BTB) synthetic fertilizer be helpful obtaining higher yields Therefore, this study optimized soil applied along with BTB, (i.e., Bacillus sp. MN54) growth, concentrations chickpea. The included were 0.00 (control), 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 1.00 mg kg−1 combined or without MN54 inoculation. improved root system, nodulation, concentration, inoculation further traits. Moreover, at lower dose (0.25 soil) BTB recorded highest improvements system (longer roots more roots’ proliferation), nodulation grain yield. concentration was under (0.75 study. 0.25 growth yield-related traits, especially nodule population (81%), number pods plant−1 (38%), grains (65%) (47%) compared control treatment. (1.00 In conclusion, pragmatic option population, seedling agronomic biofortification