Chitosan stimulates development of soybean inoculated with rhizobia

Soybean is one of the crops prioritized in Cuba through agricultural extension policy, local innovation and knowledge management to increase its cultivable areas and productivity. Currently, the use of agricultural biostimulants represents a promising alternative in crop development. Commercial inoculants offer advantages in nodulation, biological nitrogen fixation and oilseed development, while chitosan and its derivatives exert antimicrobial activity against various phytopathogens, induce a wide variety of defensive responses that lead to increased basal resistance in crops and stimulate their development under both normal and stress conditions. This research demonstrates the compatibility of Azofert-S® inoculant and different concentrations of chitosan on the in vitro viability of Bradyrhizobium elkanii on seeds and its effect on growth, physiology and yield of soybean cv 'INCASOY-27', when both biostimulants are applied to seeds prior to sowing and by foliar spraying of the polymer.