Saline areas: Special bacteria can increase growth

FAISALABAD: Salinity is a major factor that reduces growth worldwide. However, halo-tolerant bacteria have the ability to withstand salinity and promote growth. These views were expressed during a PhD seminar on “Biochemical and molecular characterisation of salinity tolerant PGPR strains” which was organised at NIBGE here on Wednesday. Rajput, in the keynote lecture, highlighted the role of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPR) which is widely used for enhanced soil fertility and crop productivity. She said that salinity tolerant PGPR have been isolated at the Pakka Anna Research Station in Faisalabad. The scholar further said that experiments were conducted and results showed that addition of halo-tolerant bacteria resulted in increased biomass (up to 62 percent in 2008-09 and 50 percent in 2009-10) as well as grain yield (up to 113 percent in 2008-09 and 77 percent in 2009-10) compared to the un-inoculated control.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th,  2011.