Vol. 9, Special Issue 9, Part D (2025)

A pilot experiment entitled “Impact of Expired Pharmaceutical Nutrient Supplement Enriched Halophilic Microbial Consortia on Nutrient Content and Uptake of Rice in Sodic Soils” was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of halophilic microbial consortia comprising Bacillus subtilis, Halobacillus massiliensis, and Paraburkholderia fungorum (S1). The consortia were applied either alone, enriched with expired pharmaceutical nutrient supplements (EPNS: Bioron®, Bonetuff®, Huntred®, Lyvell®, Rymega-9G®) (S2), or with conventional micronutrient salts (ZnSO₄•7H₂O, FeSO₄•7H₂O, MnSO₄, CuSO₄•5H₂O, Na₂B₄O₇•4H₂O) (S3). Treatments were imposed as seed treatment (M1), soil application (M2), or their combination (M3), along with the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF), in a 3 × 3 factorial randomized complete block design with nine treatment combinations plus a control, replicated three times. The results indicated that the combined seed treatment and soil application of EPNS-enriched consortia (M3S2) significantly improved both nutrient content and uptake in rice compared with other treatments. This treatment recorded the highest uptake of primary nutrients nitrogen (104.14 kg ha⁻¹), phosphorus (29.76 kg ha⁻¹) and potassium (116.77 kg ha⁻¹) as well as secondary nutrients calcium (37.12 kg ha⁻¹), magnesium (26.50 kg ha⁻¹) and sulphur (26.02 kg ha⁻¹). These findings highlight that integrating halophilic microbial consortia with EPNS not only enhances nutrient uptake and nutrient-use efficiency in rice grown under sodic soil conditions but also provides a sustainable approach for utilizing expired pharmaceutical supplements in agriculture.