Inconsistency and variability in yield responses have also
been attributed to adverse conditions such as interaction with
other rhizospheric organisms, physical and chemical conditions
of the soil (e.g., low pH), poor ability of the PGPR
strain to colonize the plant roots, and environmental factors
including highmean temperatures and lowrainfall during the
growing season [5].
A major problem in rainfed agroecosystems is predominance
of abiotic stresses like high temperature, salinity, and
drought where the survival of bioinoculants is a problematic
issue. The variations in results from laboratory to field are
more compounded due to various abiotic stresses that prevail
under field conditions for a microbial inoculant to establish
and to show the desired effect. Such problems can be overcome
by sound screening programme for efficient stress
tolerant PGPRs for effective deployment of these strains to
draw one or more beneficial effects. Hence, the present study
was conducted to identify strains of Pseudomonas and Bacillus
collected from crop production systems from different
agroecological regions of India for their ability to withstand
adverse environments such as high temperature, salinity, and
drought along with antagonistic activity.