STUDY OF EFFECTS OF ANTAGONISTIC SOIL MICROBES ON RICE EARLY STAND ESTABLISHMENT, PREVENTION OF SEEDLING MORTALITY AND INDUCTION OF PEROXIDASE AND CATALASE ENZYMES

Rice is the stable food of India including other Asian countries. The objective of this study was to find out the effect of some antagonistic microbes as growth promoting factors including prevention of seedling mortality and induction of enzyme in rice. The application of biocontrol agents was done by seed treatment by dip method. The enzymes peroxidase and catalase were assayed by standard colorimetric and titration methods respectively. The results revealed that among the biocontrol agents, Trichoderma viride yielded maximum seed germination (97.10%), dry weight of shoot (3.10 g) and root dry weight (2.95 g) followed by Trichoderma harzianum, Candida famata, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa respectively. The percent of seedling mortality was maximum in control (7.00%) and minimum (1.23%) in T. viride treated seeds and it also showed that population of biocontrol agent in soil where seeds were sown with biocontrol agents, were in good amount. The results after 14 days showed that biocontrol agent T. viride yielded maximum shoot & root length (8.00 and 6.20 cm) followed by T. harzianum (7.90 and 5.90 cm) in comparison to control and it indicated that biocontrol agents gave growth promoting factors to the seedlings of rice. Enzymatical experiments revealed that all microbes tested increased both catalase and peroxidase of endosperm of rice in comparison to control (untreated) upto 8 days. In conclusion, all microbes used here are able to enhance the seed germination, shoot and root growth of seedlings and induction of catalase and peroxidise enzymes in rice seedlings but T. viride is best of all.