EFFECT OF RHIZOBIUM INOCULATION WITH PHOSPHORUS AND NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON PHYSICO – CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE GROUNDNUT SOIL

Low soil fertility status, nutritional imbalance and inappropriate agronomic practices are the major problems limiting the current production and yield of groundnut, therefore a study was conducted during 2015/2016 at the green house of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Malaysia, to evaluate the effect of Rhizobium inoculation, in combination with P and N fertilization on the growth and yield of groundnut. The experiment included plots with and without Rhizobium-inoculated treatments, two rates of P fertilizer (0, 82 kg ha^-1) and two rates of N fertilizer (0, 27 kg ha^-1). The treatments were laid out in a split-split plot design with two main plots (plots with and without rhizobium), two sub plots (for two Nitrogen levels) and two sub sub-plots (for two phosphorus levels), and the experiment replicated thrice. The results showed that the treatment of R⁺N₁P₁ increased significantly effect on soil pH by 5.89 units, the R⁺N₁P₁ significantly effect on Organic Matter, Soil organic C, soil total N, soil CEC, and available P by (4.87%, 2.13%, 0.34%, 7.0 meq/100g, and 94.36 μg/g, respectively). Based on the results of the present study, it was concluded that the soil properties can be increased with the use of P and N fertilizers along with rhizobium inoculants.