CYANOBACTERIA AND Rhizobium radiobacter AS POSSIBLE BIOFERTILIZERS IN WHEAT PRODUCTION

Recently, a great attention is paid in establishing concept of the associations between wheat plants and a variety of N₂-fixing and/or growth promoting producer microorganisms. This phenomenon has entered the scientific scene arising from the prospects and the possibilities of their potentially application. In this work, cyanobacteria (cyano) and/or Rhizobium radiobacter (R) inoculation each alone or both in combination were applied to wheat in a field experiment under the effect of different of nitrogen levels. Results revealed that cyanobacteria inoculation (cyano) combined with R exhibited an economical view that it can save about 25 % of the mineral nitrogen amounts required for wheat crop production especially. The trend was noticed when Cyano was combined with R that recorded a wheat grain yield not significantly different from that obtained by the full recommended nitrogen dose in wheat cultivation. Cyanobacteria inoculation to wheat crop along with R has also enhanced the NPK- uptake by wheat plants, soil microbial community, dehyderogenase activity and CO₂ evolution and fluorescein diacetate activity (FDA) as index for soil fertility.