Abstract:Background: Groundnut is the second most annual oil seed crop. It has 45 to 49 per cent oil content and 26 per cent protein in kernel. Hence, groundnut is called as ‘king of oil seeds’ and ‘poor man’s cashew nut’.
Methods: Field experiment was conducted during summer season of 2021 at ZAHRS, Brahmavara, KSNUAHS, Shivamogga, Field experiment consisted of eight treatments were replicated thrice and laid out in RCBD.
Result: Among treatments tried, significantly higher microbial population registered in treatments which received RDF with seed treatment with KSB and ZnSB either alone (T3 or T4) or in combination (T5 and T6). Significantly, higher soil available nutrient status at harvest (N: 242 kg ha, P2O5:103.75 kg ha-1, K2O: 96.6 kg ha-1 and Zn: 0.83 mg kg-1), recorded in treatment recommended dose of fertilizer + seed treatment with KSB + ZnSB (T5). Higher number of pods plant-1 (29.1), pod weight plant-1 (21.9 g) were recorded with recommended dose of fertilizer + seed treatment with KSB + ZnSB (T5). The better values of these indices in T5 resulted in higher pod yield (1675 kg ha-1) of groundnut.