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| Liquid Microbial Consortium for Soil Health |
| Pavan Kumar Pindi* |
| Pavan Kumar Pindi, Associate Professor, Palamuru University, India |
| *Corresponding author: |
Pavan Kumar Pindi
Associate Professor
Palamuru
University
India
E-mail: pavankumarpindi@gmail.com |
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| Received April 21, 2012; Accepted April 21, 2012; Published April 22, 2012 |
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| Citation: Pindi PK (2012) Liquid Microbial Consortium for Soil Health. J Biofertil
Biopestici 3:e102. doi:10.4172/2155-6202.1000e102 |
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| Copyright: © 2012 Pindi PK. This is an open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited. |
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| Editorial Note |
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| The green revolution brought amazing consequences in food grain
production but with insufficient concern for agricultural sustainability.
The availability and affordability of fossil fuel based chemical fertilizers
at farm level in developing countries have been ensured only through
imports and subsidies which are largely dependent on GDP of the
country. Dependence on chemicals for future agricultural needs would
result in further loss in soil health, possibilities of water contamination
and calculated burden on the fiscal system. Indiscriminate synthetic
fertilizer usage has polluted the soil, water basins, destroyed microorganisms
and eco friendly insects, made the crop more susceptible
to diseases and depleted soil fertility at the primary levels as of today,
which is the main concern of the write up. In this critical context
microorganisms have been emerged as the potential alternative for
the productivity, reliability and sustainability of the global food chain.
Carrier based biofertilizers have already proved to be the best over the
agro chemicals and have been showing the tremendous effect on the
global agriculture productivity since the past two decades. Rectifying
the disadvantages of the carrier based biofertilizers, Liquid biofertilizers
have been developed which would be the only alternative for the
cost effective sustainable agriculture. The article focuses on Liquid
Biofertilizer Technology providing reliable reasons for their necessity,
specificity and emphasizes that “Use of agriculturally important
microorganisms in different combinations i.e. Liquid Microbial
Consortium (LMC) is the only solution for restoration of soil health”. |
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| Even though Biofertilizers are being produced and distributed
constantly by private agencies, NGOs, State and Central Government
production units for the last three decades, their corresponding usage
is not in the satisfactory proportions. To cope with the rising demands
for food commodities, serious efforts are being made by the State and
Central Governments (under the National Projects) for the sufficient
agricultural production by popularizing biofertilizers and making them
available to the farmer community. In spite of these efforts, the rate of
consumption of biofertilizers is not to the optimum level in comparison
with the agrochemicals. The reason attributed is the “non-availability of
good and suitable carrier materials” that raises contamination problems
and shorter shelf life. To cope with this alarming situation, Liquid
formulations (LFs) are being developed that ensure more quality over
the conventional carrier based biofertilizers inaugurating a new era in
the biological input technology. These liquid formulations facilitate
long shelf life (up to 2 years), minimum contamination, carrier free
activity, handling comfort, storage and transport convenience, easy
quality control, enhanced export potentials and are preferred by the
farmer community as well as manufacturers. |
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| Why to Explore Bio-fertilizers? |
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| In order to feed the ever growing populations, the countries have
to increase the per unit area productivity. According to United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimations, the average
demand for the agricultural commodities will be 60 percent higher in
2030 than present time and more than 85% of this additional demand
will be from developing countries [M. A. Baset Mia]. For over half a
century, the world has relied on the concept of increasing crop yields to
supply an ever increasing demand of food. Therefore, vertical expansion of food production is necessary. In order to increase the unit area
productivity of agricultural land, the role of different crop nutrients in
contributing increased crop yield is vital. Among the crop nutrients,
nitrogen as well as phosphorus play an important role in increasing
the crop productivity. Further, the nitrogenous chemical fertilizers are
manufactured industrially using non renewable petroleum products
under high temperature and high pressure. Increase in petroleum
cost day by day effects the cost of the chemical fertilizers. In addition,
more than 50% of the applied N-fertilizers are somehow lost through
different agricultural processes which not only lead to economical loss
to the farmers and polluted environment consequently (Ladha et al.,
1998). |
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| Feedstock/fossil fuel depletion and increasing fertilizer cost
are making marginal farmer unaffordable. Growing concern about
environmental hazards, increasing threat to sustainable agriculture
are some of the other reliable reasons for the Biofertilizer promotion.
However, plant nutrients like N, P, and K are highly essential for plant
growth and metabolism. It is also evident that plants utilize nutrients
in greater amounts from soil in modern intensive cultivation and
needs replenishment. Under such conditions microorganisms offer
good alternative technology to replenish crop nutrients [Boraste A].
In agricultural eco-system, microorganisms have vital role in fixing /
solubilizing / mobilizing / nutrient recycling. These microorganisms
occur in soils naturally, but their populations are often scanty. In order
to increase the crop yield, the desired microbes from rhizosphere are
isolated and artificially cultured in adequate count and mixed with
suitable carriers or as they are in suitable combinations (Microbial
consortium) by artificial culturing. These are known as biofertilizers or
microbial inoculants. |
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| Strategies |
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| • Identification and characterization of potential organisms
(unexplored) and their effective exploitation in the field of
Agriculture is urgently needed. |
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| • Selection and application of suitable bioinoculants with respect
to soil nature, Agro climatic condition, crop variety under proper
agriculture practices is needed. |
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| • Genotypic study of the strains and molecular characterization of
the plant parts is necessary to understand the plant mechanisms. |
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| • Study of Soil texture and compatible studies with respect to
microbial interventions. |
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| • Exploring the novel soil bacteria and maintaining the genomic
libraries for future exploitation. |
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| • Identifying, studying the population genetics and preserving
the useful endangered species and by advanced bio molecular
techniques and bioinformatics tools. |
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| • Suitable combinations of microbial formulations (liquid
microbial consortium) with optimized field results are preferable
for the sustainable production. |
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| • Soil analysis, crop rotation, organic manure usage, maintenance
of proper moisture content, regular sterilization practices are
emphasized which are necessary to maximize the biofertilizer
efficacy. |
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| • Global standards in the research & development should
be maintained during the production and storage of the
formulations. |
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| • Development of new strains with enhanced capabilities by
genetic engineering techniques and rDNA technology is needed
to maintain an eco friendly & sustainable agriculture. |
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| • Constructive awareness and technical support by microbiologists
and agricultural professionals must be provided to the Agrarians. |
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| Conclusion |
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| Human has been relaying on agriculture throughout the evolution
and would be depending on it for ever. The impact of globalization,
transition in the technology led a negative shade on agriculture
in the developing countries and declined the percentage of the
farming community drastically resulting in raising demand for food
commodities. Growing global population demands safe and sufficient
food for the survival. Soil heath has become the greatest assertion for the scientific community in this ever growing polluted globe.
Uncertainty in the agro climatic conditions (edapho-climatic factors),
monsoon failures by the priceless human activities, lack of proper
awareness among the farming community are the direct causes for the
agriculture failure in the developing countries. The raising demand for
the fields like food processing, packing industries, ready to eat foods
etc., witness the demand for raw materials in agriculture sector. crises of
agricultural land day by day, vertical increase in the cost of agriculture
input technologies are leading to transitions in farming community.
In such an agro critical scenario, a multifaceted solution for different
constraints in agro industry is necessary. It is evident that biofertilizer
technology has inaugurated a new era in biological input technology
and recorded a tremendous raise in the annual agriculture production
particularly in the past two decades. To combat the threat of global
food crises, the alternative technologies in the agriculture like liquid
biofertilizers are obligatory. Liquid biofertilizers ofcourse have the
capacity to replace the traditional chemical fertilizers & Carrier based
biofertilizers and plays a major role in restoring the soil health, but a
lot of measures in terms of technology, government support, subsidies,
and constructive awareness by well trained technicians among the
agrarians are emphasized. |
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| References |
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- MA Baset Mia, ZH Shamsuddin (2010) Rhizobium as a crop enhancer and
biofertilizer for increased cereal production. African Journal of Biotechnology
9: 6001-6009.
- S Sheraz Mahdi, GI Hassan, SA Samoon, HA Rather, Showkat A Dar, et al.
(2010) Bio-Fertilizers in Organic Agriculture. Journal of Phytology 2: 42-54.
- Krishan Chandra, S Greep, P Ravindranath, RSH Srivathsa Liquid Biofertilizers,
Ministry of agriculture department of agriculture & co-operation, Government of
India.
- Ahemad M, Khan MS (2011) Insecticide-tolerant and plant-growth-promoting
Rhizobium improves the growth of lentil (Lens esculentus) in insecticidestressed
soils. Pest Manag Sci 67: 423-429.
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