Influence of Cellulolytic Bacterial Augmentation on Organic Carbon and Available Phosphorus in Sandy Loam Soil under Cultivation

Microorganisms are major key players for sustaining the soil quality degraded by intensive use of synthetic chemicals for increasing crop production and therefore, use of them as inoculants or biofertilizers is an integral part of sustainable agriculture. An effort was, therefore, made to examine the effect of cellulose degrading bacterial isolates on legume (Chickpea) based cropping systems. No chemical/organic fertilizer was added during this study. The bacterial isolates viz., Serratia sp. (MSK1 and MSK24) and Pseudomonas sp. (MSK13) exhibiting cellulase activity of 3.83, 4.21 and 4.52 mM glucose ml h respectively were introduced as inoculants. The ERIC-PCR results showed the good survivability of introduced strains in soil, measured after crop harvest, respectively 40.2. 56.8 and 34.4 %. A significant enhancement in organic carbon and available phosphorus was observed in the inoculated plots over the control plot, indicating beneficial effect of the bioaugmentation of these inoculants.