Symbiotic Response of Three Tropical Sorghum Varieties to Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Inoculation in Marginal Soil

The effect of three Glomus species on growth parameters in term of shoot length, root lenght, dry weight proximate composition and quantitative evaluation of mycorrhizal dependency of three sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) varieties i.e. SS-1 Johar, PARC SS-2 and SP-462 were evaluated. The AM inoculated plants showed significantly better performance than the non-inoculated plants in terms of plant height, number & length of leaves, root length, number of seminal roots and dry weight. Proximate analysis showed enhancement in crude protein, fat, moisture and ash content in mycorrhizal plants except carbohydrate and crude fibers. Regarding mycorrhizal dependency (M.D), maximum value was noted in SV2 (74.30%) variety while least was observed in SV3 (21.30%). This study clearly indicates the potential of using indigenous AM fungi (Glomus species) as biofertilizer in sorghum crop in low fertility soils hence reduce chemical fertilizer input and proved to be environment friendly.