International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013
ISSN 2278-7763
28
Use of Bio-fertilizers and Organic Inputs - as LISA technology by farmers of Sangamner
Prajakta patil1, Pradnya Ghag2 and Sangram Patil3
Abstract
Modern farming practices affect our world, by the way of land degradation, nutrient
runoff, soil erosion, water pollution, soil compaction, loss of cultivated biodiversity, habitat
destruction, contaminated food and destruction of traditional knowledge systems. These all result
into changing climatic conditions of the earth. Farmers are directly getting affected due to these
climate changes as it affects the crop production. Sudden change in normal weather conditions
sometimes results into the total crop failure. These ill effects of modern agriculture and climate
change can be delineated by adopting organic farming. This paper summarizes use of
biofertilizers and organic fertilizers by the farmers in Sangamner region of Maharashtra as low
input Sustainable agricultural technology (LISA). Though the use of chemicals in agriculture is
inevitable to meet the growing demand for food in world, there are opportunities in some areas
where organic production can be encouraged to tape the domestic export market. Farmers are now
using the biofertilizers, Vermicompost, Poultry manure, Jeevamrit as source of organic manures
in their fields in Sangamner. There are actually a wide variety of biofertilizers that have been
evolved through universities and independent research labs, but these are not disseminated upto
the 100 % farmers. Sustainable use and conservation of natural resources are the key components
to face the problem of soil degradation and climate change.
Key Words: Organic, biofertilizers, Vermicompost, Rhizobium, Pseudomonas
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Introduction:
Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) aims to find out alternative, healthful options to
getting rid of problems of modern agriculture that means ecofriendly farming through less use of
chemicals in crop production. The chemical give an immediate effect on crop production for
small duration but creates long term ill effects on environment. Organic manures are helpful to
improve the physical and chemical properties which results into increasing soil fertility and
productivity. Organic fertilizers which are ecofriendly and can be prepared by the farmer himself
on his farm by using locally available materials which are found to be more suitable for the
increasing crop production as well as serves as low cost agricultural input. Organic farming has
emerged as an important priority area in view of the growing demand for safe and healthy food
and long term sustainability and concerns on environmental pollution associated with
indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. The main reason for this is the motivation of farmers done
by WOTR through adoption of various methods such as Method demonstrations, Result
demonstrations, Farmers exposure trips, Weather based agro advisories, farmer’s school etc
1:Prajakta Patil- Agricultural Research Officer, WOTR, Pune-9
2:Pradnya Ghag - Research Analyst, WOTR and CCA Project, Pune-9
3:Sangram Patil- Research Assistant, WOTR and CCA Project, Pune-9
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International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013
ISSN 2278-7763
29
Methodology:
Survey of Sangamner region has been done during 2011-2012 for different agricultural
practices followed by the farmers. There were eight villages selected for this survey viz;
Savargaon Ghule, Sarole Pathar, Warudi Pathar, Malegaon Pathar, Gunjalwadi, Karjule Pathar,
Kauthe Khurd, and Bhojdari. Then plan for field demonstration plots has been prepared and
according to which the 160 Farmers have been selected for different organic farming practices in
kharif 2012. Some crops such as Ground Nut, Paddy, Maize, Tomato, and Onion have been
selected for various treatments of biofertilizers, vermicompost. Rhizobium seed treatment has
been given to ground nut, Pseudomonas to maize while azotobacter and azospirillium to sorghum
and paddy @ 250g/10 kg of seeds. Vermicomposting beds (4m x 2m) have been prepared by the
farmers on their fields by using locally available plant residues. Jeevamrit is also a source of
biofertilizer as it provides inoculants of different strains of soil microorganisms. It has been
prepared on large scale by the farmers and applied @ 200 liters/acre. For preparation of 200 litres
of jeevamrit it requires 10 litres of cow urine, 100 gm of soil from root zone of banyan tree,
500grams of gram flour mixed thoroughly in a drum which contains 190 litres of water and kept
for 8-10 days period in drum for fermentation with intermediate stirrings. The field observations
were regularly recorded by researchers in the field as well as farmers was guided through
conducting farmer’s school.
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Village Map:
Results and Discussion:
Biofertilizers used by the farmers are majorly nitrogen fixing bacteria, Phosphorus Solubilizing
bacteria, Jeevamrit, and organic fertilizers are Vermicompost, Farm Yard Manure, and Poultry
Manure in study villages. Organic manures are useful to enhance the physical as well as chemical
properties of soil .Organic matter acts directly as a source of plant nutrients and indirectly
influence the physical and chemical properties (Kumar and Dhar) Organic manures are benefiting
the farmers by giving positive results such as, increased plant vigor, less nutrient requirement
Copyright © 2013 SciResPub.
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International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013
ISSN 2278-7763
30
through chemical fertilizers, increased water holding capacity of soil, increased crop production.
The various organic formulations used by the farmers in the villages have been summarized as
follows.
1. Biofertilizers: Bio-fertilizers are being essential component of organic farming .These
are the preparations containing live or latent cells of efficient strains of nitrogen fixing, phosphate
solubilising or cellulolytic micro-organisms used for application to seed, soil or composting areas
with the objective of accelerating microbial processes which augment the availability of nutrients
that can be easily absorbed by plants. They are in fact being promoted to harvest the naturally
available, biological system of nutrient mobilization (Venkatashwarlu, 2008a). The role and
importance of biofertilizers in sustainable crop production has been reviewed by several authors
(Biswas et al. 1985; Wani and Lee, 1995; Katyal et al. 1994).Farmers are using the various
inoculants of bacteria and fungi which has been given in Table1.
Table 1: Bio-fertilizers used by Farmers
S.
Groups
Strains
No.
N2 fixing Biofertilizers
1
Symbiotic
Rhizobium
2
Associative Symbiotic
Azospirillum
3
Free-living
Azotobacter
P Solubilizing Biofertilizers
1
Bacteria
Bacillusmegaterium var. phosphaticum, Bacillus
subtilis
2
Fungi
Penicillium sp, Aspergillus awamori
Biofertilizers for Micro nutrients
1
Silicate
and
Zinc
Bacillus sp.
solubilizers
Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria
1
Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas fluorescens
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The nitrogen fixing biofertilizers are Rhizobium, Azotobacter and Azospirillum. Rhizobium is a
symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria which is used for ground nut, gram, chick pea and soybean @
25g/kg of seed in the region.
These different Rhizobium strains have been used by the 20 farmers of villages as
demonstration plots and other farmers selected for their indigenous method of ground nut
cultivation. In general Rhizobium can fix the nitrogen from 57 -100 kg/ha (Wagner). Thus, it
helps to increase the amount of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil which can be readily absorbed by
the plants. Increase in plant height and average number of nodules per plant has been observed in
demonstration plots than farmers practice for ground nut. These results are in conformity with
Sulochana and Gadgi (2010).
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International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013
ISSN 2278-7763
Sr.
No.
Table 2: Effect of Rhizobium seed treatment on Ground nut
Treatment
Plant height
Average no. of
at
maturity
nodules /plant at
(cm)
harvest
31
Yield from 1m2
area of plot (gram)
at harvest
1
Farmer’s
32.6
17.3
156
Practice
2
Rhizobium
38.9
27
243
Seed
Treatment
Azospirillum is an associative symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria. Seed treatment has been
given to Rice, Sorghum, and Maize @ 25 g/kg of seed. Apart from nitrogen fixation, there are
some additional benefits of Azospirillum inoculation to the seed such as:
a) It increases disease resistance and drought tolerance
b) It also promotes production of growth promoting substance i.e. IAA
The effect has been observed on Maize, and Paddy crops in the region specifically in case
of growth contributing characters of the crop similar findings has been observed by
Wagner, S. C. (2012) .
Azotobacter is used as a free living nitrogen fixing biofertilizer for the oilseeds such as
mustard, linseed and for the millets such as pearl millet, finger millets, and kodomillets in the
region.
Phosphate solubilizing biofertilizers used for the seed treatments are both bacteria and
fungi. Two bacterial strains have been used in the region Bacillus megaterium var. phosphaticum
and Bacillus subtilis while Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus awamori are used as fungi which
solubalises phosphate. Bacillus spp. is also helpful in Silicate and Zinc solubilizing processes.
Pseudomonas fluorescens is used as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria which showed
increase in growth contributing characters of the plant. It has been observed that Pseudomonas
treatment shows increased height of maize plants, number of functional leaves/plant as well as
number of cobs/plant than the farmer’s practice.
Table 3: Impact of biofertilizer seed treatment on Maize
Sr.
Crop
Treatment
Plant
No. of functional
No.of
No.
height
leaves /plant (at
cobs/plant
(cm)
Silking)
(At harvest)
1
Maize
Farmer’s
120
7.8
1.2
Practice
2
Pseudomonas
135
9.6
1.4
seed treatment
2. Jeevamrit: Jeevamrit is used as a source of biofertilizer and applied at the rate of 200 lit/acre
through irrigation water with fifteen days interval. The effect has been observed on bulb size of
the onion
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International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013
ISSN 2278-7763
32
Table 4: Effect of Jeevamrit on average size of onion bulb.
Sr. No.
Crop
Treatment
Average Diameter of onion
bulb(cm)
1
Onion
Farmer’s Practice
5.3
Vermicompost
6.8
3. Vermicompost: vermicompost units of 4 x 2 m have been constructed by the farmers on their
farm . They are using vermicompost as replacement for farm yard manure. Farmers have noticed
the difference in using Vermicompost and FYM in their fields in terms of production of Maize
and Onion (Table 5) Vermicomposting shows higher yields than farmers practice in both maize
and onion. similar results have been reported by Rao et al., (2010).
Table 5: Effect of vermicompost on yield of Maize and onion
Sr. No.
Crop
Treatment
Grain yield (kg/acre)
1
Maize
2
Onion
Farmer’s Practice
Vermicompost
Farmer’s Practice
Vermicompost
1620
1956
14800
16350
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The other sources of organic fertilizers include green manuring crops, Neem cake, Karanj cake
and Poultry manure. Among all of these Poultry manure is used by few farmers in the region
specifically for vegetable crops as it retains more moisture within the soil. It supplies secondary
nutrients i.e. Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur and micronutrients such as Molybdenum,
Manganese, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Sodium .Most the crops, especially paddy, sugar cane, plantation
crops, floriculture and horticultural crops respond well to poultry manure (Zublena et al., 1997).
Though cattle compost manure is known to our farmers not many are familiar with poultry
manure; because modern poultry farms have emerged in India just four decades back and also
confined to a few pockets. This affects its availability in the region.
Conclusion: Organic formulations and biofertilizers play an important role in development of soil
structure and nutrient availability which supports the entire plant growth system.
Following strategies should be followed for sustainable agriculture development in the region
 Identification/ selection of efficient location/ crop/soil specific strains for N-fixing, P, Zn
Solubilizing and absorbing (mycorrhizal) to suit different agro climatic conditions of Sangamner.
 Technical training on the production and quality control to the farmers
 Use of improved strain in project villages through biotechnological methods
 Developing suitable alternate formulations viz., liquid inoculants / granular formulations for all
bioinoculants.
 Organizational training to the extension workers( Vasundhara sevak /Agronomists/ Paraagronomist) and farmers to popularize the technology
 Dissemination of information through mass media, publications and group discussions.
 Arranging exposure visits of farmers on organic farming
 Result demonstration plots of any one new agricultural innovation in every village
 Arranging KrishiMela/ Agri-Exhibition at village level for group of villages to encourage farmers.
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International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013
ISSN 2278-7763
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