A field experiment was conducted to investigate the soil microbial growth and enzymatic activity of Treated Distillery Effluent (TDE) and Bio-compost (BC)

Sodicity is one of the major salt stresses that impair crop production. Exopolysaccharide-producing sodic tolerant bacteria (EPS-STB) play a significant role in reducing the sodic stress in plants by hampering the uptake of sodium. In this context, this study aims to isolate the EPS-STB for alleviating sodic stress in rice under a sodic environment. Thus, artificial sodicity was created in culture media, and 253 bacteria were isolated from the rice rhizosphere of sodic soils in Trichy and Chinna Salem of Tamil Nadu in India. Fifty bacterial isolates were initially screened based on EPS production, sodic tolerant ability, and plant growth-promoting activities. Further, these bacterial isolates were identified using 16S rDNA sequencing. The results suggested that the isolated bacteria possessed biofilm-forming abilities along with plant growth-promoting activities and osmolyte accumulation under sodic stress conditions. Bacillus rugosus L1C7T, Bacillus paralicheniformis L1C5L, Pseudomonas sp. L5C14T and Franconibacter helveticus L2C1L2 were chosen as better EPS-STB plant growth-promoting bacteria, and their impact on rice under sodic conditions was evaluated. Among the sodic tolerant bacteria, Franconibacter helveticus L2C1L2-inoculated rice plants increased dry matter production compared to the control. Thus, this study showed that the utilization of EPS-STB will become a promising tool to alleviate sodic stress in rice.

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The world agriculture is suffering due to development of salinity and poses a major setback in increasing the yield of cotton. The ability of the plant system to maintain low sodium concentration is a critical component for its tolerance to salt affected conditions. The plant Na/K concentration in the plant was studied to understand the cotton crop for their tolerance to different sodicity levels (Different ESP levels) and to assess its effect on yield. The cotton varieties (SVPR 2 and Surabi) and Bt cotton (RCH -20) was tested in the field experiment under different ESP levels. The yield of cotton varieties and Bt cotton was recorded at different ESP levels. The yield was higher in Bt cotton compared to other two verities and the ESP level of 38-41 is fixed as to get 50% yield. This was mainly exclusion of Na in the cotton leads to the lower level of Na/K ratio in the Bt cotton plants than the varieties tested.

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