Biotechnology Forums

Full Version: Biofertilizer is an Essential Tool of Modern Agriculture
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Biofertilizer is one of the best modern tools for agriculture. It is a gift of our modern agricultural science. Biofertilizers are applied in the agricultural field as a replacement to our conventional fertilizers. Conventional fertilizers contain compost; household wastes and green manure. Those are not as effective as chemical fertilizers. So farmers often try to use chemical fertilizers in the field for crop development. But obviously the chemical fertilizers are not environment friendly. They are responsible for water, air and soil pollution and can spread cancer causing agents. Moreover, they may destroy the fertility of the soil in a long run. Scientists have developed Biofertilizers to prevent pollution and to make this world healthy for everybody in a natural way.

Biofertilizer contains microorganisms which promote the adequate supply of nutrients to the host plants and ensure their proper development of growth and regulation in their physiology. Living microorganisms are used in the preparation of Biofertilizers. Only those microorganisms are used which have specific functions to enhance plant growth and reproduction.

There are different types of microorganisms which are used in the biofertilizers. Some are capable of nitrogen fixation such as Azotobacter, Blue green algae Rhizobium and Azospirillum. Rhizobium is used to increase the capacity of nitrogen fixation in the leguminous plants. Azotobacter are used as Biofertilizers for the development of various vegetable plants such as mustard, maize, Wheat, cotton etc. Azospirillum is applied in the millets, sorghum, sugarcane, maize and wheat field. Nostoc, Tolypothrix, Anabaena, and Aulosira are known as blue green algae. Anabaena and Azolla fix atmospheric nitrogen and enrich the soil fertility.

Phosphate solublizing bacteria are also developed as Biofertilizers. Pseudomonas putida, Pantoea agglomerans strain P5 etc. are the examples of phosphate solublizing bacteria. Their major work is to solubilize phosphates from any sources of organic and inorganic both. Those phosphates are taken as nutrients by plants.

Microorganism converts complex nutrients into simple nutrients for the availability of the plants. Biofertilizer containing those microorganisms can play a great role in crop improvement. Crop yield can be increased by 20-30% if Biofertilizers are used properly. Biofertilizers can also protect plants from soil born diseases to a certain degree.

Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (VAM) fungi is often used as Biofertilizer. It is widely found in both aquatic and desert soil environments. VAM provides significant amount of nutrients to the plants such as copper, zinc, phosphorus and sulphur by making their widely extended hyphal network on the upper or lower side of the soil layer. VAM is commercially used in the fields of India.

Microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi algae etc. are commercially prepared as Biofertilizers. Those Biofertilizers are feasible and reliable for almost every crop field considering their costs and Eco friendliness rather than chemical fertilizers.
These information were really nice, I really appreciate your work. I think that it Helps in maintaining environment health by reducing the level of pollution, biofertilizers are used for hastening the process of compositing and for enriching its nutrient value.
Biofertilizer are foods made from living organisms or the use of its parts. It help in growing the seeds very fast and also with its nutritious value. I thinks Biofretilizer are good for agriculture.
Bio-fertilizers are being used in large quantity in agricultural. Bio-fertilizers had brought revolution in agriculture field. The word agriculture is more related to natural activity and to nature like plant life cycle, ecosystem, green earth, vegetables, fruits, soil, water & natural environment. Therefore it’s something we do which is a core part of nature wherein artificial things are keeping aside. Therefore nature will grow and help us only if we can align its different components to maintain the balance and bio-fertilizer as also one part or component of nature which when we align in agriculture or nature , really helps mankind in better way than un-natural things like artificial chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Bio-fertilizers are nothing but a part of nature in the form of microorganisms which colonize the rhizosphere or interior of the plant and help plant to grow by easily supplying nutrients and growth stimulus. Few bacteria have specific genes which make them capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. These are Nif Genes. Earth has around 65-70 % of nitrogen but this is of no use to plants unless it is converted to nitrate and this is done by Nif gene containing microorganism and this process is called as nitrogen fixation. Bio-fertilizers are classified as Nitrogen fixers which includes Bacteria like Rhizobium, Azitobacter , Mycobacterium and Blue Green like Anabaena ,Nostac, etc. Further depending upon the fixing capacity they are divided as Phosphate solubilizing fertilizer, Plant growth promoting Rhizobacterim (PGPR), Sulphur solubilizing microbes (Bio-fertilizer) and Azolla. It also means that Nature grows only when there is balance of activities between natural things only like animals, plants, microbes and environment!
Microorganisms employed to enhance the availability of nutrients, viz., nitrogen (by fixing atmospheric nitrogen) and phosphorus (by solubilizing phosphorous), to the crops are called biofertilizers. Of these, biological nitrogen fixation offers an economically attractive and ecologically sound route for augmenting nutrient supply. Thus various species of Rhizobium for legumes, blue green algae (BGA) or cyanobacteria ( Aulosria, Nostoc, Anabaena etc) and Azolla ( a fern containing symbiotic nitrogen fixing BGA) for wet land rice, and Azotobacter/Azospirillum for several crops can play significant role in agriculture. On the other hand, the phosphatic biofertilizers, including the bacteria, Thiobacillus, Bacillus, etc. and the mycorrhizal fungus Glomus help in increasing the solubility/availability of nutrient P, which is already present in the soil in sparingly soluble forms. These microorganisms, however, do not bring in P from outside. Therefore, in a way, they deplete the soil P reserves but considering the low utilization efficiency of phosphatic fertilizers, P-solubilizing biofertilizers can play an important role in improving the efficiency of utilization of P residues left in the soil.

List of some important microorganisms with practical/potential application as biofertilizers:
Organism Activity Association Use in crops

Rhizobium N2- fixation Symbiotic Legumes

Azospirillum N2- fixation Associative Graminaceous crops

Azotobacter N2- fixation Asymbiotic Wheat, rice

Blue Green algae N2- fixation Asymbiotic Rice

Azolla- Anabaena N2- fixation Symbiotic Rice

P-solubilizing bacteria P solubilization Asymbiotic Many crops

Mycorrhiza P solubilization Associative Many crops


Criteria for selection of microorganism for biofertilizer (e.g. Nitrogen Fixer):

1. Ability to fix dinitrogen over a range of environmental conditions

2. Ability to compete with other strains

3. Ability to multiply in broth and survive in the carrier

4. Ability to survive in seed pellets

5. Ability to persist in soil

6. Ability to form nodules

7. Ability to continue to fix atmospheric dinitrogen in presence of soil nitrogen

8. Ability to migrate in soil and colonize it

9. Ability to be stable during storage.