ABSTRACT
The quest for enhancing agricultural yields due to increased pressure on food production has inevitably led to the investigation of the enhancement of pepper (Capsicumannuum L.) growth by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Fresh pepper samples were purchased, seeds were removed and dried, and floating test was performed to separate the viable seed which were used for the research. Soil sample was collected from the rhizosphere of grown fruited pepper plant and stored in a polyethylene bag and taken to the laboratory for analysis. In order to identify the bacteria present in the soil sample, cultural and morphological analysis such as; shape, size, elevation, transparency, margin, colour, cell type, cell arrangement, motility, gram, oxidase, catalase, citrate, indole, urease, hydrogen sulphide, lactose, sucrose, glucose, maltose and sorbitol were carried out. The plant growth promoting traits (such as Ammonium production, Hydrogen cyanide, Phosphate solubilization and Indole acetic acid) were also carried out. Two bacteria were isolated and were used to inoculate pepper seed. Ten pepper seeds were inoculated with the bacterial species. Control experiments were also set up in triplicates. Pseudomonas sp. and Citrobacter sp. were positive to Hydrogen cyanide but negative to Ammonium production test. From the experiment, it was observed that the shoot length and the number of roots of the pepper innoculated with Pseudomonas sp. performed better than Citrobacter sp. treatment, but Pseudomonas sp.+ Citrobacter sp. grew better than the Pseudomonas sp. treatment as well as the Citrobacter sp. treatment. It can be concluded that the higher the number of isolated plant growth promoting rhizobacteria species on the soil in which pepper or other crops are planted, the better the growth and yield will be observed.
