Natural nourishment
Excessive dependence of farmers on chemical fertilisers has resulted in numerous environmental problems. Experts recommend using biofertilisers to overcome this crisis. Biofertilisers are biologically active products, including bacteria, algae or fungi that can provide plants with nutrition. Most biofertilisers are either nitrogen fixing or phosphate stabilising. Nitrogen fixing biofertilisers fix atmospheric nitrogen into forms which are easily available for use by plants. These include rhizobium, azotobacter, azospirillum, blue green algae and azolla. Phosphate solubilising microorganisms secrete organic acids that enhance the plants' uptake of phosphorous by dissolving rock phosphate.
The organisation mainly responsible for their promotion is Ghaziabad-based National Biofertiliser Development Centre. It has a capacity to produce 375 tonnes of biofertiliser every year. In addition, 58 commercial production units are also manufacturing biofertilisers. Total production of biofertilisers in 1998-99 was reported to be 16,000 tonnes. At present, rhizobium accounts for the largest proportion (40 per cent) of the total production, followed by azatobacter.
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