10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 8 Issue 3 2017 (July - September) Rhizobia are a unique class of prokaryotes which can improve growth and yield of legumes by developing a symbiotic relationship. This interaction reduces the need of nitrogenous fertilizers during the growth of leguminous crop. So rhizobial inoculants have been frequently applied as biofertilizers having antagonistic activity against various soil-borne plant pathogenic fungi. In this study lessThan i greaterThan Rhizobium lessThan /i greaterThan strain was evaluated for antagonistic activity against fungal pathogens, shelf life studies of liquid formulants using biopolymers and pot trials along with control were performed. Isolated lessThan i greaterThan Rhizobium lessThan /i greaterThan inhibited the growth of lessThan i greaterThan Aspergillus niger lessThan /i greaterThan and lessThan i greaterThan Fusarium oxysporum lessThan /i greaterThan which are pathogenic fungi affecting lessThan i greaterThan lessThan /i greaterThan yield of groundnut plants. The isolate was characterized for its physiological stability in different polymers. The obtained strain showed higher viability throughout the shelf life period in all polymers such as carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC), poly ethylene glycol (PEG), poly vinyl pyrolidone (PVP) and sodium alginate (SA) at various concentrations during 9 lessThan sup greaterThan lessThan /sup greaterThan months (7days to 180 days). Groundnut seeds treated with liquid bioinoculants showed significant influence on the physical parameters of plants as compared with control under pot experiment trials.All the parameters of growth of groundnut plant showed good results for rhizobium inoculation of seeds. Therefore such isolates may be beneficial strains to improve growth and development of groundnut plants. V. NITHYAKALYANI AND M. KANNAN Rhizobium, antagonistic activity, shelf life study, polymers, PEG, Groundnut, PGPR. 707-713