Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Technologies Developed

Department of Agricultural Microbiology

4. Liquid formulation of biofertilizers

Presently, biofertilizers are prepared as carrier based formulations and lignite is the most widely used carrier material. The improper sterilization of carrier material and handling while mixing the bacteria with carrier and packing serve as source of contaminations. Because of this, the inoculant pocket could not hold desired biofertilizer organism for long time, which reduced the shelf-life of the biofertilizers. Further, the quality of the biofertilizer gets deteriorated. Because of these reasons, biofertilizer application could not able to give viable results in the fields. To avoid these and to increase the quality and shelf-life of bioinoculants, liquid formulation of Azospirillum and phosphobacteria was developed. Preservatives were added with the bacterial cultures and packed in quality PP bottles. The shelf-life of liquid inoculants is one year, which can hold the cell count of more than 108 per ml without any contaminants. Advantages The liquid inoculants have higher quality, longer shelf-life without contaminants than carrier based inoculants. The performance of liquid inoculants in the field is on par with conventional carrier based inoculants. Method of application Seed treatment 250 ml each Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria per ha seeds; Seedling dip 500 ml each Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria per ha seedlings; Soil application - 500 ml each Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria per ha seedlings; Tree crops 100 ml each Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria per tree once in six months.

Centre for Plant Molecular Biology