Effect of combining poultry manure, inorganic phosphorus fertilizers and phosphate solublizing bacteria on growth, yield, protein content and P uptake in maize

Phosphorus (P) is a limited resource, and its efficient use is a main task in sustainableagriculture. Due to high costs of imported fertilizers, focus is now shifting to solutions that utilize localresources and biofertilizers. In a field experiment, the effect of combination of two inorganicphosphorus (P) fertilizer i. e. diammonium phosphate (DAP), single super phosphate (SSP), poultrymanure (PM) and phosphate solublizing bacteria (PSB) on the on growth, yield, energy content and Putilization efficiency (PUE) of maize was evaluated in Typic Hapludolls acidic soil of Azad Jammu andKashmir (AJK). Both inorganic P fertilizers when applied in combination with PM and inoculation withPSB significantly increased plant height, leaf area and chlorophyll content over control. Grain, drymatter, biomass yield and protein content increased by 48-99, 47-64, 48-75 and 61-104% overcontrol. P uptake increased from 13 g kg-1-1 Keywords phosphorus --- yield --- protein --- P efficiency --- PSB