| Sanction Date: | 20.03.2025 | |||
| Project Category | MG | |||
| Year | 2024-2025 | |||
| Project Duration | 3 Years | |||
| BTA : | BCM | |||
| Project Site/ State/ Districts/ Villages Covered: |
Sikkim |
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| Organization/ Implementation Agency: | Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi | |||
| Project Partners: | S.No. | Name | ||
| 1. | Sikkim University | |||
| Lead Proponent: | Dr. Jay Prakash Verma |
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| Project Brief Description: | In modern agriculture, increasing the productivity of crops is of paramount importance. Significant progress has been made, particularly with the achievements of the Green Revolution, benefiting both the agricultural sector and farmers' livelihoods. However, the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to meet these goals have posed a major challenge to sustainable agriculture. This practice has led to the degradation of soil quality, depletion of essential nutrients, and contamination of groundwater. Bio-fertilizers, as a blend of growth-enhancing nutrients, offer a promising solution for modern agriculture focused on sustainable crop production, while also preserving and protecting the environment. Bio-fertilizers based probiotic consortium, as a blend of growth-enhancing nutrients, offer a promising solution for modern agriculture focused on sustainable crop production, while also preserving and protecting the environment. The sustainable crop production system, particularly in organic farming, relies heavily on plant-microbe interactions within the rhizosphere for the transformation, mobilization, and solubilization of nutrients from a limited nutrient pool. These interactions facilitate nutrient uptake by plants, demonstrating the genetic adaptability and functional capabilities of the involved microbes (Jacobay et al., 2017). In recent years, the application of microbial consortia as bio-fertilizers has gained traction as a supplement to chemical fertilizers, helping to enhance crop yields within integrated plant nutrient management systems (Bargaz et al., 2018). Among these, the use of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has emerged as a key strategy for developing sustainable crop management systems. Symbiotic and non-symbiotic bacteria, such as Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Klebsiella, and Bacillus species, are increasingly employed worldwide for improving crop yield and managing plant diseases. India, a major agrarian country in Asia, has embraced these sustainable practices, with Sikkim becoming the first Indian state to achieve full organic certification in 2016. This project proposes to build on Sikkimâs organic agriculture model by exploring PGPR-based probiotic consortium as bio-fertilizer to enhance crop productivity and resilience. In the context of sustainable agriculture, we will be isolated and characterized several PGP microbial strains collected from different region of Sikkim state, India, with the collaboration of Co-PI. The main aim of this project is 1) to isolate microbial strains from rhizosphere soils and plant of different crops and vegetables, 2) functional properties (Plant growth promoting activities) and molecular characterization of isolated strains and testing its synergistic and antagonistic relations among potential strains, 3) plant growth promoting testing ability by microbial inoculation with different crops (Pisum sativum, Oryza oryzae) and vegetables under plant growth chamber, 4) developing probiotic microbial consortium for enhancing plant growth and yields of crops and vegetables under pot and field trials at Sikkim state. The finding of present proposal will be able to provide an ecologically and economically sound technique to stakeholders to minimize chemical and pesticide residue concentration in environment and especially in edible vegetable and crops of Sikkim district. The stocks of consortia for PGPR will also provide an opportunity to scientific community to explore them for biotechnological applications as multiple application for promotion of plant growth attributes and productivity. | |||
| Beneficiaries/ Stakeholders: |
The aim of the study will be isolation and characterization of plant growth-promoting microbes from local pea cultivar Dentami and others crops and vegetables from Begha, Utteray and Maneybung villages of Dentam, West Sikkim, India. In addition, we will study isolation and characterization of plant growth-promoting bacteria from local pea/ rice cultivar Dentami from Begha, Utteray and Maneybung villages of Dentam, West Sikkim, India. We will prepare and formulated different microbial strains working as PGP activity and biocontrol activity as a consortia form. That consortia help to local people of Sikkim not the present but also beyond it.
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| Activity Chart | ||||
| Total Grants (in Rs.) | Rs. 13,500,000/- (Rupees One Crore Thirty-Five Lakh Only) | |||
| Project Objectives | Quantifiable Deliverables | Monitoring Indicators |
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• To isolate and biochemically characterize of microorganisms from rhizosphere soil and plant samples of different regions of Sikkim state of Himalayan ecosystem. • To evaluate plant growth promoting (PGP) activities and molecular characterization of isolated microbial strains, and testing of its PGP impact on plant growth promotion of different crops and vegetables under in vitro condition • To develop a microbial consortium and its efficiency testing for enhancing crop and vegetable production under pot and field trials. • To formulate probiotic consortium as solid and liquid culture for enhancing sustainable crop and vegetable production at different regions of Sikkim state of Himalayan ecosystem. |
• Identified and characterized microbial strains with plant growth-promoting (PGP) traits • Optimized microbial consortium with proven growth-enhancing properties • Ready-to-use biofertilizer formulations in solid and liquid forms • Report on scalability of microbial consortia for different cropping systems • Demonstration plots and farmer training programs • Policy recommendations and technology transfer framework. |
• No. of microbial strains isolated and characterized • No. of strains exhibiting significant PGP activity; Molecular characterization reports • No. of formulations developed and tested; Stability and viability analysis of bioformulations • No. of field trials, workshops, and farmers trained • No. of research papers, technical reports, and policy documents published. |
| S.No. | Name (Sanctioned) | Salary (Sanctioned) |
| 1. | 02 Research Associate I | @ Rs.58,000/- + 16% HRA |
| 2. | 01 Field Assistant | @ Rs.20,000/- |
| S.No. | Name of Equipment (Sanctioned) | Cost (in INR) |
| 1. | UV Transilluminator used for visualizing of DNA@ 100000/-, Fermenter Unit@1800000/-, Micropipet Set@125000/- | 2,025,000 |
