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Biofertilizers

Biofertilizers - Biofertilizers are microbial inoculants containing living cells of either nitrogen fixing or phosphate solubilizing bacteria. The most important biofertilizer commercially available is the rhizobial inoculant used for legume seed inoculation. Since most legumes are grown with out any inorganic nitrogen fertilizers, their growth is dependent on the supply of nitrogen by these bacteria.

The technology of producing these inoculants consists of culturing efficient strains of rhizobia in yeast extract mannitol medium under controlled conditions in shake flasks or fermentors and mixing the culture broth with sterile powdered foil, charcoal, lignite or peat. The mixture is allowed to cure for a short period after which it is packed and used for seed bacterization. In recent years this technology is also extended to treat cereals with nitrogen fixing bacteria such as Azotobacter and Azospirillum.

The blue green bacteria have also been used as biofertilizer in rice cultivation. However, the technology for producing these inoculants on a large scale is different. Efficient strains of blue green bacteria are cultured in open tanks, in water containing adequate amounts of mineral nutrients such as phosphate and molybdate. After adequate amount of growth is obtained, the algal mass is dried and used as inoculant material. Alternatively, this organism can also be cultured directly in the open fields before the rice crop is transplanted.

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