Enhancing maize growth and drought resilience by synergistic application of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria

The agriculture system in India is mostly rainfed, water is a major limiting factor in the country. Limited access to available water creates a drought-like condition which severely affects the crop production. Maize was selected as the target crop due to its importance as third major crop after wheat and rice and its huge water demand. The present study was conducted to observe the effect of bacterial inoculants on drought stress tolerance of Zea mays L. The maize seeds (DH line and composite) were treated with 2 bacterial inoculants (LZn-4 and S34) which were characterized as plant growth-promoting microorganisms and were able to tolerate water potential of - 1.5 MPa. The experiment was conducted in two conditions Vis-à-vis stress and without stress. As per the observation plant height, relative water content, antioxidants level, and soil enzymes were found to be maximum in the case of LZn-4 in drought conditions. Principal component analysis also highlighted the positive correlation of some of the treatments (T2 and T8) with microbial inoculants towards different stress related factors. The present investigation needs to be taken to the field level to understand the relationship between microbial inoculants and drought stress in real-time situations.