Agricultural research communication centre

Effect of Rhizobium inoculation on plant growth: 
Nitrogen
fixers benefit the plant by providing them atmospheric
nitrogen, which contributes to the development of plant
growth and biomass production. Rudresh 
et al 
(2005) studied
the effect of inoculation with 
Rhizobium
on growth attributes
and observed that chickpea gave higher plant height (3.3%),
number of branches per plant (23.3%) and biomass per plant
(144%) as compared to uninoculated control. In similar
findings, Elkoca 
et al 
(2008) revealed that 
Rhizobium
inoculation increased plant height, shoot dry weight and
chlorophyll content in chickpea. These findings are in
agreement with that of Giri and Joshi (2010) in chickpea.
The increment in the root length was also observed in the
inoculated treatments (Solaiman 
et al,
2010) which in return
resulted in increased root surface area. The increase in root
surface area enhances the nutrient acquisition by plant from
the soil (Yadav and Verma, 2014).
Branch es are subsidiary parameter of plant
biometery which are important to realise higher grain yields.
Singh 
et al
(2011) found that number of primary and
secondary branches were higher when chickpea was
inoculated with 
Rhizobium
. Similarly, Shahzad 
et al
(2014)
reported greater plant height and shoot biomass per plant in
Rhizobium
inoculated chickpea in both irrigated and rainfed
conditions. Beneficial effects on various growth attributes
due to 
Rhizobium
inoculation have also been reported (Togay
et al,
2008; Singh 
et al, 
2015) which may be attributed to
improved nutrient acquisition (Solaiman 
et al, 
2012),
enhanced growth and development of photosynthetic organs
and the rate of photosynthates accumulation (Moinuddin 
et
al, 
2014) as well as production of various phytohormones
such as indole acetic acid (IAA) (Verma 
et al,
2013).