INTRODUCTION

India is the second most populous country in the world. With the increasing population, the
cultivable land resource is shrinking day to day. To meet the food, fiber, fuel, fodder and other
needs of the growing population, the productivity of agricultural land and soil health needs to be
improved. Green Revolution in the post independence era has shown path to developing
countries for self-sufficiency in food but sustaining agricultural production against the finite
natural resource base demands has shifted from the “resource degrading” chemical agriculture to
a “resource protective” biological or organic agriculture. Green revolution technologies such as
greater use of synthetic agrochemicals like fertilizers and pesticides, adoption of nutrient-
responsive, high- yielding varieties of crops, greater exploitation of irrigation potentials etc. has
boosted the production output in most cases. However, continuous use of these high energy
inputs indiscriminately now leads to decline in production and productivity of various crops as
well as deterioration of soil health and environments.

The most unfortunate impact of Green Revolution Technologies on Indian Agriculture is as

follows:

1. Imbalance in production
2. Dependency on synthetic chemical fertilizers
3. Increase in secondary & micronutrient deficiencies
4. Increase in pesticide use
5. Unscientific water management and distribution
6. Reduction in productivity
7. Reduction in quality of the produce
8. Extinction of gene pool
9. Environmental pollution
10. Imbalance in social and economic status

All these problems of GRT lead to not only reduction in productivity but also deterioration of
soil health as well as natural ecosystem. Moreover, to day the rural economy is now facing a
challenge of over dependence on outside inputs and day-by-day increase in price of these inputs.
Further, Indian Agriculture will face the market competition due to globalization of trade as per
World Trade Organization (WTO). Thus, apart from quantity, quality will be the important
factor. Such varieties of concern and problems of modern Indian Agriculture gave birth to
various new concepts of farming

such as organic farming, natural farming, biodynamic agriculture, do-nothing agriculture, eco-
farming, etc. The essential concept of these practices remains the same, i.e., back to nature,
where the philosophy is to feed the soil rather than the crops to maintain soil health and it is a
means of giving back to the nature what has been taken from it (Funtilana, 1990). Therefore, for
sustaining the productivity of the crop, maintaining the soil health and healthy ecosystem, there
is need for adoption of an alternative farming system, may be the organic farming.

In most of the developing countries use of chemical fertilizers to increase the crop production is
becoming highly essential. Biologically fixed nitrogen is such a source which can supply an
adequate amount of nitrogen to the plants and other nutrients to some extent. It is a non
hazardous way of increasing soil fertility. Biologically fixed Nitrogen consumes about 25 to 30%
less energy than normally used in chemical process. Concentrations of elements in biofertilizers
are within the tolerable range. As these plants multiplying rapidly, biofertilizers are required in
less quantity. They are also adding some enzymes and growth promoting hormones in the soil.
Dead and decaying organic matters increase the humus content of the soil. Hence biofertilizers
are more beneficial than inorganic fertilizers.

Biofertilizer

What is biofertilizer?

After the introduction of chemical fertilizers in the last century, farmers

were happy of getting increased yield in agriculture in the beginning.
But slowly chemical fertilizers started displaying their ill-effects such as
leaching out, and polluting water basins, destroying micro-organisms
and friendly insects, making the crop more susceptible to the attack of
diseases, reducing the soil fertility and thus causing irreparable damage
to the overall system.

A number of intellectuals throughout the world started working on the alternatives and found that
biofertilizers can help in increasing the yield without causing the damage associated with
chemical fertilizers.

Plants have a number of relationships with fungi, bacteria, and algae, the most common of which
are with mycorrhiza, rhizobium, and cyanophyceae. These are known to deliver a number of
benefits including plant nutrition, disease resistance, and tolerance to adverse soil and climatic
conditions. These techniques have proved to be successful biofertilizers that form a health
relationship with the roots. 
The name itself is self explanatory. The fertilizers are used to improve the fertility of the land
using biological wastes, hence the term biofertilizers, and biological wastes do not contain any
chemicals which are detrimental to the living soil. They are extremely beneficial in enriching the
soil with those micro-organisms, which produce organic nutrients for the soil and help combat
diseases. The farm produce does not contain traces of hazardous and poisonous materials. Thus
those products are accepted across the world as Organic ones. Hence for organic farming the use
of biofertilizers is mandatory.

Galaxy of Biofertilizers

Phospho: It releases insoluble phosphorus in soil and fix this phosphorus in clay minerals which
is of great significance in agriculture.

Rhizo: Rhizo Bacterial plays a very important role in agriculture by inducing nitrogen fixings
nodules on the root of legumes such as peas,beans clove and alfalfa.

Azotobactor: Atmosphere contains 78% nitrogen which is a very important nutrient for plant
growth. Azotobactor fixes the atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and make it available to the
plants. It protects the roots from other pathogens present in the soil

Trichoderma: It is a non- pathogenic and eco-friendly product. The product is antagonistic

hyper parasitic against different pathogens in the field and economically well established
biocontrol agent

Composter: (Decomposing Culture): Composter breaks down any organic matter such as dead
plants farm yard waste, cattle waste etc. thereby increasing the soil productivity.

Tricho-Card: Trichogramma is an efficient destroyer of eggs of many leaf and flower eaters,
stems, fruit, shoot borers etc. It can be used in a variety of crops as well as in horticultural and
ornamental plants,such as sugarcane,cotton,brinjal,tomato,corn,jawar,vegetables,citrus,paddy
apple etc.

Vermi Compost: It is 100% pure eco-friendly organic fertilizer. This organic fertilizer has
nitrogen phosphorus, potassium,organic carbon,sulphur,hormones,vitamins,enzymes and
antibiotics which helps to improve the quality and quantity of yield. It is observed that due to
continuous misuse of chemical fertiliser soil losses its fertility and gets salty day by day. To
overcome such problems natural farming is the only remedy and Vermi compost is the best
solution.

Biocompost: It is eco-friendly organic fertilizer which is prepared from the sugar industry waste
material which is decomposed and enriched of with various plants and human friendly bacteria
and fungi. Biocompost consists of nitrogen, phosphate solubilizing bacteria and various useful
fungi like decomposing fungi, trichoderma viridea which protects the plants from various soil
borne disease and also help to increase soil fertility which results to a good quality product to the
farmers.

There are many types of biofertilizers, each one acting in its own specific way.

 Green manures

 Earthworms

 Nitrogen fixing organisms

 Azolla

 Blue green algae

 Phosphate solubalising bacteria

 Vascicular - arbiscular mycorrhizae

Green manures

Green manure refers to supplying the plant nutrients by application of living plant material to the
soil. The nutrients are made available after decomposition of green manure in soil. Many plants
have been identified for their potentiality as green manure.

The green manures are normally applied when they are succulent and tender so that they can
easily decompose in soil. The green manures are incorporated into the soil by ploughing them.
As the nutrients are made available entirely by biological sources they are popularly called as
biofertilizers.

There are two systems in the use of green manures:

 To bring the green leaf from outside and incorporating them in the soil.

 To grow green manure crop on the land for cultivation, before the main crop is grown
and incorporate the same in the soil before sowing the main crop.

The former system is usually followed in green manure tree crops such as Pongemia which are
grown either on roadside or in forests. The greener part of these plants are cut and applied to
cultivated field. The latter system is followed in other short duration green manure crops - which
are grown on cultivated lands.
Most of green manure crops are leguminous and have capacity to fix nitrogen. Their use as green
manure is advantageous - as this helps in meeting the nutrient demands of cultivated crop. Green
manuring is reported to have increased the crop yields by 10 - 20%.

Earthworms

Earthworms have traditionally been known as friend of farmer. They were known as farmer's
friend due to their lifestyle involving

 turnover of the soil - as the earthworms move up and down in the soil, they help in better
aeration of soil and increase the permeability of soil.

 production of manure by eating away the organic wastes.

Recently, their potentiality to produce the manure is commercially exploited. Growing

earthworms on commercial scale to produce the manure is called as VERMICULTURE and
manure produced by it is called VERMICOMPOST. Earthworms work day and night to convert
the organic wastes into a nutrient rich manure. Any decomposable organic waste can be used to
produce VERMICOMPOST. Such manure contains all major nutrients like nitrogen,
phosphorous and potassium besides many micronutrients.

Use of vermicompost improves soil characters, besides supplying nutrients. It also improves the
microbial activity - as vermicompost adds organic matter. In turn, the soil regains its inherent
capacity to produce, retain and supply nutrients to crops on a sustainable basis. Vermicompost
can increase the crop yields by 20 - 30%.

Mycorrhizae are a group of fungi that include a number of types based on the different
structures formed inside or outside the root. These are specific fungi that match with a number of
favourable parameters of the the host plant on which it grows. This includes soil type, the
presence of particular chemicals in the soil types, and other conditions.

These fungi grow on the roots of these plants. In fact, seedlings that have mycorrhizal fungi
growing on their roots survive better after transplantation and grow faster. The fungal symbiont
gets shelter and food from the plant which, in turn, acquires an array of benefits such as better
uptake of phosphorus, salinity and drought tolerance, maintenance of water balance, and overall
increase in plant growth and development.

While selecting fungi, the right fungi have to be matched with the plant. There are specific fungi
for vegetables, fodder crops, flowers, trees, etc.
Mycorrhizal fungi can increase the yield of a plot of land by 30%-40%. It can absorb phosphorus
from the soil and pass it on to the plant. Mycorrhizal plants show higher tolerance to high soil
temperatures, various soil- and root-borne pathogens, and heavy metal toxicity.

Legume-rhizobium relationship

Leguminous plants require high quantities of nitrogen compared to other plants. Nitrogen is
an inert gas and its uptake is possible only in fixed form, which is facilitated by the rhizobium
bacteria present in the nodules of the root system. The bacterium lives in the soil to form root
nodules (i.e. outgrowth on roots) in plants such as beans, gram, groundnut, and soybean.

Blue-green algae

Blue-green algae are considered the simplest, living autotrophic plants, i.e. organisms capable of
building up food materials from inorganic matter. They are microscopic. Blue-green algae are
widely distributed in the aquatic environment. Some of them are responsible for water blooms in
stagnant water. They adapt to extreme weather conditions and are found in snow and in hot
springs, where the water is 85 °C.

Certain blue-green algae live intimately with other organisms in a symbiotic relationship. Some
are associated with the fungi in form of lichens. The ability of blue-green algae
tophotosynthesize food and fix atmospheric nitrogen accounts for their symbiotic associations
and also for their presence in paddy fields.

Blue-green algae are of immense economic value as they add organic matter to the soil and
increase soil fertility. Barren alkaline lands in India have been reclaimed and made productive by
inducing the proper growth of certain blue-green algae.

2. Why should we use biofertilizers?

With the introduction of green revolution technologies the modern agriculture is getting more
and more dependent upon the steady supply of synthetic inputs (mainly fertilizers), which are
products of fossil fuel (coal+ petroleum). Adverse effects are being noticed due to the excessive
and imbalanced use of these synthetic inputs. This situation has lead to identifying harmless
inputs like biofertilizers. Use of such natural products like biofertilizers in crop cultivation will
help in safeguarding the soil health and also the quality of crop products.

3. What are the benefits from using biofertilizers?

Benefits from biofertilizers

1. Biofertilizers are easy to produce in abundance and are available at low cost to the

marginal farmers.

2. It increases soil fertility without causing any damage to the soil.

3. Application of biofertilizers increases yield upto 45 per cent and the left over biofertilizers in
the soil increases yield as long as the biofertilizer remains in the soil up to 3 to 4 years.

4. Azolla, which is a biofertilizer amends the soil with organic matter. Cyanobacteria in
particular secrete growth promoting hormones like indole 3-acetic acid, indole butyric acid,
naphthalene acetic acid, aminoacids, protein and vitamins to soil.

5. Cyanobacteria grow well both in acidic as well as in alkaline soils. Since,

cyanobacteria are potent neutralizers, they help in the neutralization of soil. The

process of converting untenable, fallow land to cultivable soil is termed as soil

reclamation. Blue green algae play a vital role in this conversion.

6. Symbiotic nitrogen fixing Rhizobium is a biofertilizer. It adds 50 to 150 Kg of nitrogen to soil

per hectare. Azatobacter and Azospirillum secrete antibiotics which act as biopesticides.

7. Ectotrophic mycorrhiza, which acts as a biofertilizer, increases the surface area of the

roots of host plants, so that more absorption of nutrients by the roots is made possible.

Benefits of using Biofertilizers

As it is living thing, it can symbiotically associate with plant root. Involved microorganisms
could readily and safely convert complex organic material in simple compound, so that plant
easily taken up. Microorganism function is in long duration causing improvement of the soil
fertility. It maintains the natural habitat of the soil. It increases crop yield by 20-30%. Replace
chemical nitrogen and phosphorus by 25% in addition to stimulating of the plant growth. Finally
it can provide protection against drought and some soil borne diseases.

• Increase crop yield by 20-30%.

• Replace chemical nitrogen and phosphorus by 25%.

• Stimulate plant growth.

• Activate the soil biologically.

• Restore natural soil fertility.

• Provide protection against drought and some soil borne diseases

Advantages of Biofertilizers

Cost effective relative to chemical fertilizer and reduces the costs towards fertilizers use,
especially regarding nitrogen and phosphorus. It is environmentally friendly fertilizer that not
only prevents damaging the natural source but helps to some extend clean the nature from
precipitated chemical fertilizer

1. Cost effective.

2. Suppliment to fertilizers.

3. Eco-friendly (Friendly with nature).

4. Reduces the costs towards fertilizers use, especially regarding nitrogen and phosphorus.

10. What precautions one should take for using biofertilizers?

• Biofertilizer packets need to be stored in cool and dry place away from direct sunlight
and heat.

• Right combinations of biofertilizers have to be used.

• As Rhizobium is crop specific, one should use for the specified crop only.

• Other chemicals should not be mixed with the biofertilizers.

• While purchasing one should ensure that each packet is provided with necessary
information like name of the product, name of the crop for which intended, name and address of
the manufacturer, date of manufacture, date of expiry, batch number and instructions for use.

• The packet has to be used before its expiry, only for the specified crop and by the
recommended method of application.

• Biofertilizers are live product and require care in the storage

• Both nitrogenous and phosphatic biofertilizers are to be used to get the best results.

• It is important to use biofertilizers along with chemical fertilizers and organic manures.

• Biofertilizers are not replacement of fertilizers but can supplement plant nutrient
requirements.

How do these fertilizers work?

 These microbial cultures fix atmospheric nitrogen, helps in phosphate solubilization or

producing hormones, vitamins and other growth factors required for plant growth.

 These are called biological instruments and play a very significant role in the augmenting
of the productivity.

Advantages:

 Less expensive.

 Make soil more productive

 Eco-friendly and sustainable and

 They do not require non-renewable source of energy for their production

For vegetables Azotobacter and phosphate soubilizers are commonly used bio-fertilizers.

Azotobacter bio-fertilizers

 Azotobacter is free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria, fixing nitrogen equivalent to 25-30kg

N/ha.

 It also produces hormones like Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) and Gibberellins.

 Vitamins like biotin, folic acid and different B-group are also produced.

 The application of Azotobacter, supported by judicious use of organic matter, ensures

good seed germination, increasing productivity.
Phosphate-solubilizing bio-fertilizers

 These bio-fertilizers play a significant role in solubilizing insoluble phosphate.

 Around 95-99% of the total soil phosphorus is insoluble which is directly not available to
plants.

 The P-solubilizers containing bacteria or fungi may convert isolable form of phosphate to
soluble form by producing organic acids in general.

 About 15-25% of insoluble phosphate can be solubilized, saving chemical fertilizers

significantly.

 Important micro-organisms are:

Bacillus polymyxa,

Aspergillus awamori,

Penicillium digitatum etc.

The Regional Biofertilizers Development Centre, Nagpur, conducted experiments at farmers'

fields during 1997-98. Table 5, given below shows the increase in yield by application of bio-
fertilizers in vegetables:

Table5: Yield increase in vegetables at farmers fields at different locations

Place Treatment Crops Increase in yield

Yield over untreated
(%)

Control Treated
(q/ha) (q/ha)

Umri Nagpur Azotobacter Okra 24.8 26.0 8.3

Ambada Narkhed PSM Brinjal 125.0 137.5 10.0

Tivara Amravati Azotobacter Brinjal 190.0 220.0 15.8

Nagapur Azotobacter Chilli

14.5 16.0 10.3
Sweagram

Bopapur Nagpur PSM Cauliflower 34.0 36.5 7.35

Chikhali Katol Azotobacter Cauliflower 32.5 34.5 6.2

Chicholi Azotobacter Okra 23.4 25.5 8.97

Parshivani

Source: RBDC, VCA Complex, Nagpur (1997-98).

How to apply bio-fertilizers in vegetables:

There are 4 methods for applying bio-fertilizers in vegetables:

 Seed treatment,

 Cut piece/set treatment,

 Seedling treatment and

 Soil application

Seed Treatment

 About 200g of bio-fertilizers is required to treat 10-14 kg of seed.

 Suspend one packet of 200g in approximately 400ml water and mix it thoroughly.

 Pour this mixture on seeds and mix with hands to obtain uniform coating on each and
every seed.

 Spread the seeds in shade for drying for 10-15 minutes then sow them immediately.

Cutting/Set treatment

 Prepare a culture suspension by mixing 1 kg of culture in 50-60 litres water.

 The cut pieces of planting material required for 1 acre are kept immersed in the
suspension for 10-15 minutes.

 Then bring out these cut pieces and allow to dry for sometimes before planting. C

 Cut pieces method is applicable for crops like potato.

Seedling treatment

 Seedling treatment is recommended for tomato, chilli, onion etc.

 Prepare the suspension by mixing 1 kg of culture in 10-15 litres of water.

 Get seedlings required for 1 acre and make small bundles of seedlings.

 Dip the seedlings in the suspension for 15-20 minutes.

 Transplant these immediately.

 Generally the ratio of inoculants and water should be 1:10 approximately, i.e. 1 kg packet
in 10 litres of water.

Soil Application

 Prepare the mixture of 2-3 kg of bio-fertilizer in 40-60 kg of soil/compost.

 Broadcast the mixture in one acre of land either at sowing time or 24 hr before sowing.
The application of phosphate-solubilizers is very common.

CONCLUSION:

Biofertilizers are cost effective, eco-friendly and renewable sources of plant nutrients to
supplement chemical fertilizersBio Pesticides are natural products that helps in the maintenance
of gardens and organic food production.

They are:

 Biofertilizers are eco-friendly and do not cause pollution of air and water.

 Biofertilizers, besides supplying plant nutrients, build up the inherent capacity of soil to
produce, retain and supply plant nutrients on sustainable basis.

 Biofertilizers need not be carried over long distances.

 Biofertilizers supply many micro nutrients like zinc, boron, molybdenum, sulphur, iron
and calcium besides major nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. But
chemical fertilizers generally supply only one or two nutrients at a time.

They prevent soil erosion and loss of nutrients by leaching. Biofertilizers also play a vital role in
maintaining long term soil fertility and sustainability.