*2.1. Low P Soil Sampling, Site Description, and AMF Inoculum and Propagation of AMF*

Low-phosphorus (P) soil was collected from Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Santhpur, ICAR—NRRI, Cuttack, Odisha (20◦27- 45.08-- N; 85◦52- 58.76-- E) for the experiment and analysis. The initial properties of the experimental soil were analyzed (Table 1). The sterilized soil was used for a pot experiment. The soil-based single AMF inoculum *viz*. *Funneliformis* sp., *Rhizophagus* sp., *Glomus* sp., *Acaulospora* sp. and *Claroideoglomus* sp. received from Microbiology, ICAR—the National Rice Research Institute (ICAR-NRRI), India, were used in this experiment together with inoculum containing 115–120 AMF spores/g of soil, which was multiplied using finger millet (*Eleusine coracana*) as the host plant in sterile soil using a trap culturing method (Figure 1) [27,29].

**Table 1.** Initial soil properties of the experimental soil sample.


**Figure 1.** Monospecific AMF spore propagation using trap cultures and finger millet as host plant.
