Sustainability in livestock production system is largely affected by climate change. An imbalance between metabolic heat production inside the animal body and its dissipation to the surroundings results to heat stress (HS) under high air temperature and humid climates. The foremost reaction of animals under thermal weather is increases in respiration rate, rectal temperature and heart rate. It directly affect feed intake thereby, reduces growth rate, milk yield, reproductive performance, and even death in extreme cases. Dairy breeds are typically more sensitive to HS than meat breeds, and higher producing animals are, furthermore, susceptible since they generates more metabolic heat. HS suppresses the immune and endocrine system thereby enhances susceptibility of an animal to various diseases. Hence, sustainable dairy farming remains a vast challenge in these changing climatic conditions globally.

An experiment was carried out during 2014-2015 at the Experimental Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat to study the effect of biofertilizer consortium on yield, quality and soil health of french bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design (RBD) with seven treatments and replicated thrice. The treatments were T1: FYM 20 t/ha+ NPK @ 30:40:20 kg/ha (RDF), T2: Enriched compost @ 3 t/ha, T3: Enriched compost @ 3 t/ha + Consortium, T4: Vermicompost @ 3 t/ha, T5: Vermicompost @ 5 t/ha, T6: Vermicompost @ 2.5 t/ha+ Consortium and T7: Consortium (Rhizobium + Azotobacter + Azospirillum + PSB). The performance of french bean was greatly influenced by different treatments. Application of recommended dose of fertilizer in T1 recorded significantly higher yield attributing characters viz., pod/plant (28.57), pod length (15.07 cm), pod girth (0.96cm), seed/pod (6.73), pod yield(11.27 t/ha) and harvest index (67.67%) respectively. Similarly, T1 also recorded minimum dry matter content (6.87%); crude fibre content (7.15%) and maximum crude protein content (22.63%). Among the organic treatments, T3 reflected the maximum for all the yield attributing characters which was closure with T1; while T4 recorded significantly maximum ascorbic acid content (11.67 mg 100g/FW). Further, T3 also recorded the best for soil parameters viz., bulk density (0.83 g/cm3), pH (5.33), P2O5 (47.40 kg/ha), microbial biomass carbon (630.33ìg/g/24h), dehydrogenase activity (711.50 ìg TPF/g/24h) and phosphomonoesterase activity (442.43ìg p-nitrophenol/g/h) respectively. T5 recorded highest organic carbon (0.68%); while T1 also revealed maximum N and K (220.56 and 119.31kg/ha) content.

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