Zinc deficiency is one of the major constraints to rice cultivation all over the world. Hence, zinc fertilizer is applied in the soil as zinc sulphate. However the major portions of applied zinc sulphate become unavailable to plant in the soil. In the recent days, the inoculation of plant growth promoting microorganisms for improving the crop growth, yield and quality without affecting the environment is being adopted in the agriculture. There was 240 zinc solubilizing bacterial strains were isolated from rhizosphere of rice. Based on the performance of bacterial strains, there were 15 isolates found to be potential zinc solubilizer. The ZOB-6 bacterial isolate showed the maximum zone of solubilization zone (16.5mm) with ZO supplemented medium when compared to other isolates. Similarly, the ZCB-13 produced maximum clearing zone of (12.5) mm in zinc carbonate supplemented medium. The ZOB-6 and ZCB-13 zinc solubilizing bacterial isolates were confirmed as species of Acinetobacter species and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus.
