Assessment of Sulphur Oxidising Bacterial Inoculums on Groundnut Yield in Pudukkottai District of Tamil Nadu

An on farm research entitled “Assessment of Sulphur Oxidising Bacterial (SOB) inoculums on groundnut yield” was conducted during 2014–2015 to improve the sulphur availability to groundnut which in turn directly contribute to higher pod yield. The technologies compared in this study were farmer friendly and cost effective. The field experiment was laid out in five replications at five locations with three treatments in Aranthangi block of Pudukkottai district. The treatments were T1: Farmers’ Practice i.e. No application of sulphur nutrition, T2: Gypsum application at flowering stage @ 400Kg/ha and T3: Seed treatment with Sulphur Oxidising bacterial inoculums @ 1kg/ha and Rhizobium @ 1kg/ha and soil application of SOB @ 5kg/ha on 45 DAS + Gypsum 400kg/ha. The results revealed that the treatment T3 recorded significantly higher yield (2109.6 kg/ha) compared with T2 (2012.6 kg/ha) and T1 (1962.4 kg/ha) with more number of pods per plant (39.4), shelling percentage (71.8%), higher benefit to cost ratio (BCR) and improved soil sulphur content after the harvest of the groundnut crop. Hence it was inferred that under micro level situation, use of sulphur oxidising bacterial inoculums certainly improve soil sulphur nutrition that result in sustainable higher yield.