Effect of phosphate solubilizing bacteria on rain-fed chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) /dragon's head (Lallemantia iberica) intercropping

Intercropping and biofertilizers are the effective components of sustainable agriculture that improve the yield quality and quantity of the plants. A two-year factorial field experiment was conducted to find out the effect of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) on yield, yield components and some physiological aspects of intercropping of rain-fed chickpea and dragon's head. The first factor included five intercropping patterns that were sole cropping chickpea (30 and 40 plant m-2), dragon's head (160 plant m-2) and additive intercropping of both plants. The second factor was the use and non-use of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (Bacillus lentus and Pseudomonas putida). The results indicated that sole cropping of 30 plants m-2 of chickpea and 160 plants m-2 of dragon's head had the maximum of 1000-seed weight, seed yield, biological yield and harvest index with PSB inoculation. In both plants, the highest leaf nitrogen (2.97 and 2.76%), total soluble carbohydrates (1.12 and 1.47 mg g-1 fresh leaf) and chlorophyll (3.42 and 2.94 mg g-1 fresh leaf) obtained from intercropping of dragon's head+30 plant m-2 of chickpea inoculated with PSB. The maximum values of LER (>1) for PSB-inoculated (1.72) and non- PSB (1.66) were observed in dragon's head +30 plant m-2 of chickpea intercropping of. In general, intercropping of dragon's head-chickpea increased yield and yield components resulted in higher land use efficiency.