Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, India.
Soybean occupies third place among the oil seed crops of India. It is widely cultivated in M.P., Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Considering the need to augment the supply of edible oil and protein, the productivity can be increased by expanding the soybean cultivation area and yield level by improved agronomic practices. The reason for decline in grain yield of soybean is mainly due to poor supply of nutrients. Cost escalation, higher rate of P fixation and poor utilization by crops have led to the utilization of phosphobacteria. Further, zinc has assumed greater significance due to wide occurrence of its deficiency. The research findings on various aspects of the integrated use of phosphorus, zinc and phosphobacteria in soybean are reviewed.
