~ 205 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2019; SP1: 205-208 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2019; SP1: 205-208 Talwinder Singh Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India Harish Chandra Raturi Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India Dilip Singh Kachwaya Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India Sandeep Kumar Singh Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India Arinderpal Kaur Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India Correspondence Harish Chandra Raturi Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India (Special Issue- 1) 2 nd International Conference “Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture - Emerging Technologies” (February 14-16, 2019) Effect of biofertilizer and mulch on yield and quality of pea (Pisum sativum L.) Talwinder Singh, Harish Chandra Raturi, Dilip Singh Kachwaya, Sandeep Kumar Singh and Arinderpal Kaur Abstract The present investigation entitled “Effect of biofertilizer and mulch on pea (Pisum sativum L.)” was conducted during Rabi season 2017-18 at the Experimental farm, Department of Agriculture, Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of four mulches, M0-No much, M1-Paddy straw@5t/ha, M2-Maize stubbles@4t/ha, M3-Saw dust@10t/ha and four Rhizobium doses, B0- Rhizobium @0g/kg of seeds, B1-Rhizobium@20g/kg of seeds, B2-Rhizobium@25g/kg of seeds, B3- Rhizobium@30g/kg of seeds and their combinations. In Rhizobium, maximum pod length, number of pods, weight of seeds, pod yield, shelling percentage, ascorbic acid and total soluble soilds were recorded with application of Rhizobium@30g/kg of seeds. In mulch, maximum number of pods, weight of seeds, pod yield and shelling percentage were recorded with application of saw dust@10t/ha while total soluble solids was recorded with paddy straw@5t/ha, maximum ascorbic acid was recorded with no mulch. In interaction, maximum number of pods, weight of seeds, pod yield, shelling percentage was recorded with application of Rhizobium@30g/kg of seeds and saw dust@10t/ha. Rhizobium@30g/kg of seeds and no mulch resulted in maximum ascorbic acid. Maximum total soluble solid was recorded with application of no biofertilizer and paddy straw@5t/ha. Keywords: Pea, Rhizobium, mulch, FRBD, yield, quality Introduction Pea (Pisum sativum L.) belongs to family Fabaceae. This crop was grown by Greeks and Romans as an important vegetable crop in 11 th century (Khan et al., 2013) [7] . It is herbaceous, annual in habit and self-pollinated vegetable crop. The crop is grown for its green pods and seeds. The immature green seeds are consumed fresh, canned or in dehydrated jars and is leading frozen vegetable food. It is one of the most important vegetables in the world and ranks among top ten vegetable crops (Singh et al., 2006) [18] . India is second largest producer of pea in the world and accounts for 21% of the world production. Punjab is fifth largest producer of pea in the country and accounts for 6.7% of India’s production. It is second important vegetable crop of Punjab and is grown on an area of 31.3 thousand hectare with annual production of 315.87 thousand tonnes (Dhall, 2017) [5] . Biofertilizer is a natural product carrying living microorganisms derived from root or cultivated soil. These preparations in strict terms are called as microbial inoculants. Biofertilizer application has shown bright results in case of leguminous crops especially exclusive results have been obtained in case of pea (Rao et al., 2014) [14] . Pea being a leguminous crop, it can fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiosis with Rhizobium and thus has low nitrogen requirement. Rhizobium belongs to family Rhizobiaceae and is symbiotic in nature. Rhizobium has ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiotic association with legumes and certain non-legumes like Parasponia (Mishra et al., 2013) [10] . It is useful for legumes like pea, beans, chick pea, lentil, red gram etc. It colonizes the roots of specific legumes to form tumor like growths called nodules which act as factories of ammonia production.