Vol. 9, Special Issue 8, Part O (2025)

A field experiment titled “Effect of Mulching Materials and Biofertilizers on Growth, Yield, and Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)” was conducted during the Zaid season of 2024 at the Agriculture Farm, Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur, on loamy sand soil. The experiment involved four mulching treatments (no mulch, white plastic mulch, black polythene mulch, and wheat straw mulch) and four biofertilizer treatments (control, Azotobacter, VAM, and Azotobacter + VAM), resulting in a total of 16 treatment combinations. These were arranged in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. The results indicated that black polythene mulch significantly improved plant height, number of branches per plant, number of clusters per plant, number of flowers per cluster, fruit yield per plot (kg), fruit yield per hectare (q/ha), as well as gross and net returns, compared to the control, wheat straw, and white plastic mulch treatments. Wheat straw and white plastic mulch were statistically at par with each other but superior to the control. Similarly, the combined application of Azotobacter + VAM significantly enhanced plant height, number of branches per plant, number of clusters per plant, number of flowers per cluster, fruit yield per plot (kg), fruit yield per hectare (q/ha), and economic returns compared to the control, Azotobacter alone, and VAM alone. Azotobacter and VAM individually showed similar performance to each other and were both significantly better than the control.