by Biofertilizers: Sustainable Solution for Agriculture
With growing concerns over environmental pollution and depletion of non-renewable resources, the agricultural sector is making a gradual shift towards more sustainable practices. One such promising sustainable technology is the use of biofertilizers in crop cultivation. Biofertilizers are microbial inoculants used for enrichment of soil and supplementing plant nutrients. They promote plant growth through various mechanisms like nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, mineralization of nutrients, etc. Let’s explore the various types, benefits and applications of biofertilizers in detail.
Types of Biofertilizers
Biofertilizers can be broadly classified based on the types of microorganisms they contain and the processes they carry out. Some of the major types of biofertilizers include:
Nitrogen fixing biofertilizers: This type contains nitrogen-fixing bacteria like Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, etc. that help fix atmospheric nitrogen into plant usable forms through biological nitrogen fixation process. Leguminous crops greatly benefit from these biofertilizers.
Phosphate solubilizing biofertilizers: They contain phosphate solubilizing microbes like Pseudomonas and Bacillus species that solubilize immobilized phosphate present in the soil and make it available for uptake by plants. These are important for crops grown in phosphate deficient soils.
Potassium mobilizing biofertilizers: These biofertilizers help in solubilizing insoluble potassium-bearing minerals like mica present in the soil. Potassium mobilizing bacteria like Bacillus mucilaginosus are usually present in these types of biofertilizers.
Other types include sulphur oxidizing, silicate solubilizing and zinc solubilizing biofertilizers containing respective microbes. These facilitate the availability of specific nutrients to plants.
Benefits of Biofertilizers
Use of biofertilizers in agriculture brings about multiple benefits over chemical fertilizers. Some key advantages are:
Enhanced nutrient availability: Biofertilizers efficiently solubilize nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, sulphur etc. from non-usable forms and make them available to plants. They also fix atmospheric nitrogen.
Improved soil health: Regular application of biofertilizers improves soil structure, aeration and water holding capacity. They promote decomposition of organic matter.
Reduced use of chemical fertilizers: Biofertilizers significantly reduce the need for chemical fertilizers as they supplement plant nutrients from various sources in the soil.
Economical input: Being microbial inoculants, biofertilizers are much cheaper than chemical fertilizers. They require small dosages per acre for effective results.
Environment friendly: Biofertilizers are pollution-free and do not leave any residues or toxic traces in soil and water bodies unlike chemical fertilizers.
Plant growth promoting substances: Many biofertilizers like Azotobacter also produce plant growth promoting substances like auxins, cytokinins gibberellins which boost plant growth and yield.
Applications of Biofertilizers
With compelling advantages, biofertilizers have wide applications in different cropping systems and agricultural practices:
Cereals: Wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millets – Nitrogen fixing and P-solubilizing biofertilizers greatly benefit these cereal crops.
Legumes: Pulses like greengram, blackgram – Rhizobium inoculation ensures effective nodulation and nitrogen fixation in legumes.
Oilseeds: Groundnut, soybean, mustard – Nitrogen fixing and PSB biofertilizers maximize yields of oilseed crops.
Fruits and vegetables: Tomato, brinjal, chili, grapes – These diversified crops require balanced and efficient nutrient management where biofertilizers play a crucial role.
Agroforestry: Trees like neem, subabul, eucalyptus – Biofertilizers enrich soil under trees and intercrops, promoting overall farm productivity.
Floriculture: Rose, gerbera, gladiolus – Selection of suitable biofertilizer type supports microbial balance in flower cultivation.
Tea and coffee plantations: Being perennial cash crops, these greatly benefit from maintenance of long-term soil fertility through biofertilizers.
Challenges of Adoption
While biofertilizers offer tremendous advantages, their widespread adoption in agriculture is still a work in progress due to certain challenges:
Quality control: Production of substandard and spurious biofertilizer products by some manufacturers hampers farmer’s trust.
High perishability: Most biofertilizers have short shelf-life requiring special storage and transportation facilities.
Knowledge gap: Lack of awareness among farmers about appropriate types, application methods and quality standards limits their usage.
High initial cost: Higher initial investment for inoculation machinery and quality production units poses challenge, especially for small and marginal farmers.
Lack of coordination: Improved coordination among manufacturers, researchers, extension agencies and farmer producers organizations is needed for hassle-free availability of biofertilizers.
Policy support: Favorable government policies incentivizing biofertilizer production and use would boost the sector on a large scale.
With expanding population and shrinking cultivable land, there is an urgent need for sustainable agricultural practices. Biofertilizers have tremendous potential for balanced nutrient management in an ecologically friendly way. Addressing existing challenges through awareness generation, quality control measures, policy reforms and coordinated efforts across the board can catalyze widespread adoption of this green technology in Indian agriculture. Overall, biofertilizers reflect a viable solution for building soil health and farm productivity on a sustainable basis.
Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
