Sheath blight, caused by the necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia solani, poses a significant threat to Basmati rice production, leading to substantial yield and quality losses. Efforts were made to evaluate a microbial consortium comprising Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma asperellum, and Pseudomonas fluorescens against this disease. The compatibility of these strains was confirmed through prior assays, and the consortium was field-tested during the Kharif season of 2023-2024.Seed treatment with the consortium significantly reduced sheath blight incidence (54.08%), intensity (69.99%), lesion length (53.36%), and number of infected tillers (47.30%) relative to untreated controls. These reductions were comparable to those achieved with the chemical fungicide carbendazim, though the fungicide remained the most effective treatment overall. The consortium also improved growth and yield parameters, including panicle length (11.11%), plant fresh weight (15.23%), test weight (20.44%), and yield (49.52%) relative to untreated controls. Additionally, the microbial treatment enhanced key defense-related enzyme activities, with substantial increases observed for phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, total phenolic content, peroxidase, and polyphenol oxidase. Correlation analysis revealed that sheath blight incidence was strongly positively correlated with lesion length (r = + 0.97), disease intensity (r = + 0.98), and number of infected tillers (r = + 0.95), while strongly negatively correlated with yield (r = -0.99), plant fresh weight (r = -0.97), and test weight (r = -0.88). Defense enzyme activities showed moderate negative correlations with disease incidence (PAL: r = -0.57; TPC: r = -0.58; PO: r = -0.56; PPO: r = -0.57), indicating that higher enzyme activity is associated with reduced disease. These findings highlight the potential of microbial consortia as effective, sustainable alternatives to chemical fungicides for managing sheath blight while promoting basmati rice production.

Improper management in old mango orchards renders them senile and less productive. Intercropping with suitable and synergistic crop improves the fertility and maintains soil health. Field experiment was conducted during 2022–2023 to find out the effect of intercropping with 4 crops: Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) and kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Wall. ex Nees) on the soil physico-chemical properties and microbial population in a 29 years old mango orchard located in the sub-tropics of Jammu Shivaliks, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The results of the study revealed that the intercropping was effective in bringing about slight improvement in all the physico-chemical properties such as soil moisture, bulk density, cation exchange capacity (CEC), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium clearly signifying that intercropping in old orchards will built the fertility level on long term basis. The microbial count showed a decreasing trend at the depths 0–15 cm and 15–30 cm, which might be due to no tillage prior to the experimentation, but it could be postulated that with continuous cropping, intercultural operations and consequent soil health improvement the microbial load would increase in the long run.