Effect of bio-fertilizers application on yield and yield components of millet cultivars Common (Panicum miliaceum L.) and Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.)in water deficit stress

To investigate the effect of different irrigation regimes and bio-fertilizers application on morphological, physiological, yield and yield components of two millet cultivars, an experiment was conducted as split factorial based on complete randomized blocks design with four replications on the research farm of Fereydunshahr, Esfahan province in 2016. In this experiment, irrigation regimes were considered as the main plots with three levels (100, 75 and 50 percent of plant water requirement) while bio-fertilizer (with three levels including control, using 1 or 0.5 L.ha-1 Azotobacter chroococcum and Azospirillum brasilense as seed inoculation) and millet cultivars (including Golbaf and Bastan) were arranged as factorial sub plots. The results of varience analysis showed that plant height, days to maturity, relative water content, biological yield, number of panicles per plant, number of seeds per panicle, the thousand-seed weight, grain yield, harvest index were significantly decreased under the water deficit stress. The highest seed yield obtained in non-stressed treatments by using 1 liter of bio fertilizer while the lowest was observed under the severe deficit water stress without bio fertilizer which indicates a 63.2% reduction in seed yield due to the severe water. According to the results of this experiment, the application of bio fertilizer could reduce the harmful effects of water stress on yield and yield components in both millet varieties. Bastan cultivar showed greater biological and seed yield advantage over Golbaf cultivar under different irrigation regimes including with or without bio-fertilizers.