Applications and Constraints of Plant Beneficial Microorganisms in Agriculture

Abstract

At present time, chemical fertilizers are more in practice for crop production, which failed to upkeep soil and environment quality and affected the sustainability of the agricultural production system. Conversely, biofertilizers are ecosystem friendly, one of the best modern tools for agriculture, and are used to improve soil fertility and quality. Biofertilizers have now emerged as a highly potent alternative to inorganic fertilizers and offer an ecologically sound and economically attractive route for augmenting nutrient supply and increasing crop production. These include live cells of diverse genera of microorganisms and have the potential to fix atmospheric nitrogen and solubilize and mobilize plant nutrients from insoluble form through microbiological process. It has also the potential to diminish the gap between nutrient supply through fertilizers and nutrient removal by crops. Hence, biofertilizers can be a feasible option to the farmers to increase crop productivity and should find greater acceptance from the extension workers and commercial biofertilizer manufacturers.