Effect of Azolla caroliniana: As Promising Biofertilizer for Improving the Growth and Yield of Rice

Abstract

Biofertilizer play important role for improving the crop yield and quality. The uses of biofertilizer over chemical fertilizer have an attractive approach for developing sustainable goal and improving soil fertility without affecting its nutrient level. Azolla has proven effective nitrogen containing biofertilizer for rice yield because of having symbiotic association with cyanobacteria. The present study was conducted to determine invitro effect of Azolla caroliniana on rice yield. Experiments were conducted in triplicate under complete randomized design and all the data were analysed by using ANOVA with statistically significant difference. The parameters used in this study were root height, shoot height, seed germination percentage, dry weight, fresh weight and pigment content. The result shows that rice seedling treated with Azolla caroliniana show increased, plant height, grain weight, seed germination percentage and chlorophyll content, however, root height was reduced. Thus, the study concluded that the application of Azolla caroliniana led to improvement of the growth traits of rice.