Worldwide crop productivity hampers severely due to the adverse effects of salinity. Global warming causes a rapid escalation of the salt-affected area, and new agricultural land is affected through saltwater intrusion. The ever-growing human population impulses to utilize the saline area for crop cultivation to ensure food security. Salinity resistance crops could be a promising substitute but with minor success because inappropriate tactics on saline soil management resulted in unsatisfactory yield. Salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (ST-PGPR) is considered an alternate way towards enhancing crop growth in saline ecosystems. It is reported that PGPR is enabled to produce exopolysaccharides which lead to biofilm formation and generate osmoprotectants and antioxidant enzymes that can significantly contribute to stimulating plant growth in the saline ecosystem. In addition, several plant growth-promoting characteristics of PGPR such as the acquisition of essential nutrients and upsurge hormone production could enhance plant growth simultaneously. In this review, we will explore the survival mechanisms of ST-PGPR and their influence on plant growth promotion in saline ecosystems.

Background: Sunflower is an economically important and the fourth most valuable oil seed crop. The study aimed to investigate organic fertilizers as an alternative method of enhancing soil quality and to determine the optimal combination of organic fertilizer treatments for sunflower growth performance and yield. Methods: The sunflower variety BARI Surjamukhi-2 was used in this study. The treatments were applied as T1= Control; T2= Farmyard Manure @ 2 t ha-1; T3= Vermicompost @2 t ha-1; T4= Biochar @2 t ha-1; T5= Farmyard Manure @1 t ha-1+Vermicompost @ 1 t ha-1; T6= Farmyard Manure @1 t ha-1+Biochar @1 t ha-1 and T7= Vermicompost @ 1 t ha-1+Biochar @1 t ha-1. Result: The data showed that application of different organic fertilizer treatments improves soil quality. Organic fertilizer addition had a positive effect on the growth traits like plant height, leaves number plant-1, stem diameter, chlorophyll content, head diameter, fresh and dry seed number head-1, 1,000-seed weight and seed yield. The correlation results strongly agreed that chlorophyll content, fresh seed number, head diameter plant-1 and 1,000-seed weight could be considered as selection indices for high yield of sunflower. This demonstrates the organic fertilizer’s capacity to improve sunflower growth and yield, as well as its significant potential to replace chemical fertilizers in the perspective of crop sustainability.

Azolla spp. is a prominent macrophyte and one of the world’s fastest growing plants, making it a highly important resource that has been widely exploited as a biofertilizer, food and feed, and biofuel production. As a result, the uses, promotion, and application of Azolla spp. in sustainable agriculture would be of significant interest. The objectives of this study were (i) to assess the feasibility of using Azolla as a growing media of melons with a reduction in fertigation concentration in a soilless culture system, and (ii) to compare the agronomic and fruit quality traits of melons grown in different Azolla treatments. The experiment was carried out using a completely randomized design with 4 treatments including: (1) control treatment (1:1 combination of chopped coconut mesocarp (CCM) and coconut coir (CC) with recommended fertigation concentration (RFC)), (2) dried Azolla (1:1:2 combination of CCM, CC, and dried Azolla with 75% of RFC), (3) fermented Azolla (1:1:2 combination of CCM, CC, and fermented Azolla with 75% of RFC), and (4) fresh Azolla (1:1:2 combination of CCM, CC, and fresh Azolla with 75% of RFC). Seven melons per treatment were recorded on the agronomic traits (stem length, stem diameter, leaf width, leaf length, and leaf number) and fruit quality (fruit weight, fruit height, fruit perimeter, rind thickness, pulp thickness, fruit cavity, pulp firmness, pulp color (L*, a*, b*, Hue, and c*), total soluble solid, juice electrical conductivity, juice pH, and juice titratable acidity). Statistical analyses revealed the differences among melon agronomic and yield traits under different Azolla treatments. Nutrient analysis results showed that fermented and fresh Azolla had a high nutritional value as compared to dried Azolla. Most fruit traits from fermented and fresh Azolla treatments with a fertilizer reduction were not significantly different as compared to control. Both treatments were recommended for melon production in a soilless culture system, since these treatments can reduce fertigation use by 25% while maintaining growth and fruit quality when compared to conventional practice.

This research was conducted to investigate the effect of different herbicides with weed management practices on growth and yield performance of mungbean genotypes. The experiment consisted of two factors were mungbean genotypes and weed management. There were two genotypes namely BARI Mung 6 and BARI Mung 8. While there were five weed management practices namely control/no weeding and without herbicide application (T1), hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (T2), pre emergence herbicide (Panida) at 1-2 DAS (T3), pre emergence herbicide (Neon) at 2-3 DAS (T4), and post emergence herbicide (Neon) at 10-15 DAS+hand weeding (T5). The results revealed that BARI Mung 6 stand superior to BARI Mung 8 in respect of dry matter content/plant, pods/plant, seeds/plant, seed yield, and 1000 seed weight. Among weed management practices, maximum plant height (53.70 cm), dry matter weight/plant (17.96 g), pods/plant (18.31), seeds/plant (171.47), maximum weed control efficiency (33.78 %) obtained from T3 treatment. Based on the interaction effect showed that BARI Mung 6 weeded with pre emergence herbicide (Panida) at 1-2 DAS produced maximum seed yield (1.79 t/ha) as well as yield attributes showed 2.29 % higher seed yield.