Role of biofertilizers in vegetable crop production: A review

Abstract

The increasing impact of agricultural practices on environment in the world have progressively affected the soil quality in both cases i.e soil structure as well as soil biological balance, which requires the advancement of substitution of practices to minimize and lessen those impacts, parallel to the improvement on yield per cultivated area and economic benefits for producers and farmers. In addition to this, the quantity of foodstuff that today’s society require for processing and supply of the industry has encouraged the standard of new options for agricultural practices, tending to be: i) Less invasive to environment ii) Cost effective than conventional methods iii) Enhanced efficiency at low costs iv) Better quality of harvests and v) Simplified use of implements with no undue technical needs. Consequently, a technology i.e biofertilization came into existence so as to curtail environmental impacts and take full advantage of the available resources. Biofertilizers have clear-cut benefits over chemical inputs. Chemical fertilizers supply N, P, K whereas bio-fertilizers provide besides N,P,K certain growth promoting substances like hormones, vitamins, amino-acids, etc. Bio-fertilizers are well-known as a substitute to chemical inputs to augment soil fertility and crop production in sustainable farming. The application of bio-fertilizers efficiently enriches the soil and costs not more than chemical fertilizers, which harm the environment as well as exhaust non-renewable energy sources. The application of chemical nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers at higher levels leads to accumulation of NH4+, NO3-, NO2-, PO4- in vegetable product tissues. Therefore clean agriculture recently depends upon using biofertilizers as well as organic products so as to give high yields with the best product quality devoid of contamination and less accumulation with heavy metals.