Performance of commercial rhizobial strains on groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) in an acid hill soil

The rhizobial products for groundnut contain different strains. The lack of information regarding the efficacy of commercial rhizobial products in different agro ecological regions, often leads to erratic results. Field experiment was conducted to study the symbiotic efficiency of the commercially available standard strains of Rhizobium viz TAL 1000, IGR 6, NC 92 and JCG 48 for two groundnut cultivars viz JL 24 and TKG 19A on the nodulation, nutrient uptake, yield attributes and yield, of groundnut in an acid hill Ultisol. IGR-6 increased dry nodular mass maximum by 43 % followed by 29% with NC-92 and JCG-48 both in JL-24, however, TKG 19A responded differently. The variety x strain interaction was significant for both the pod (P0.05 = 1.57 q/ha) and straw (P0.05 = 2.87 q/ha) yield. N and P uptake in pod as well as straw increased significantly with all strains except TAL-1000 in JL-24. Rhizobial strains NC 92 and IGR 6 showed better performance than TAL 1000 in an acid hill Ultisol.