plants Article Desert Soil Microbes as a Mineral Nutrient Acquisition Tool for Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Productivity at Different Moisture Regimes Azhar Mahmood Aulakh 1,*, Ghulam Qadir 1, Fayyaz Ul Hassan 1, Rifat Hayat 2, Tariq Sultan 3, Motsim Billah 4 , Manzoor Hussain 5 and Naeem Khan 6,* 1 Department of Agronomy, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan;
[email protected] (G.Q.);
[email protected] (F.U.H.) 2 Soil Science Research Institute, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan;
[email protected] 3 LRRI, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan;
[email protected] 4 Department of Life Sciences, Abasyn University Islamabad Campus, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan;
[email protected] 5 Groundnut Research Station, Attock 43600, Pakistan;
[email protected] 6 Department of Agronomy, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] (A.M.A.); naeemkhan@ufl.edu (N.K.) Received: 6 October 2020; Accepted: 13 November 2020; Published: 24 November 2020 Abstract: Drought is a major constraint in drylands for crop production. Plant associated microbes can help plants in acquisition of soil nutrients to enhance productivity in stressful conditions. The current study was designed to illuminate the effectiveness of desert rhizobacterial strains on growth and net-return of chickpeas grown in pots by using sandy loam soil of Thal Pakistan desert. A total of 125 rhizobacterial strains were isolated, out of which 72 strains were inoculated with chickpeas in the growth chamber for 75 days to screen most efficient isolates. Amongst all, six bacterial strains (two rhizobia and four plant growth promoting rhizobacterial strains) significantly enhanced nodulation and shoot-root length as compared to other treatments.