Developing a Climate-Resilient Technology Utilizing the Indigenous Plant Growth-Promoting Microbes for Growing Vegetables in the Rice-Fallow Land of Assam, India

Rupam Kataki of Tezpur University in India will develop a product incorporating plant growth-promoting microbes to enable vegetable farming in rice-fallow land in the Indian state of Assam. On rice-fallow land, rice cultivation alternates with the land being left fallow, and thus there is potential to enhance agricultural productivity. Candidate components of the product will be tested for growth promotion using the plant model Arabidopsis and the crop plant tomato. A set of candidate microbial communities (bacterial and fungal species) will be tested in combination with each other and with a set of organic soil additions (such as seaweed, biochar, and cocopeat), all of which have been linked to plant growth promotion. For tomato plants, they will assess growth, yield, quality, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses in a greenhouse experiment as well as a field trial.