Biofertilizers are essential ingredients helpful in promoting the growth and development of any plant. It is made of two words: bio means life, and fertilizers symbolize compost.

Biofertilizers are a microbial strain that is beneficial for colonizing the rhizosphere and making essential elements like phosphorus, nitrogen, water, and many others available.

Such types of supplements are more advantageous than any other inorganic chemicals. They are an environment-friendly and cost-effective alternative to harmful chemical fertilizers for boosting soil fertility.

Biofertilizers like Paenibacillus Polymyxa and Bacillus Licheniformis are known for performing various important activities. Some of them are nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, mobilization of micronutrients, and aiding plants to sustain and thrive in the opposite ecosystem of abiotic stress. They enable plants and crops to absorb more nutrients and water.

In many ways, such bacterial genera aid the growth and evolution of agricultural products. Some of them are:

Nutrients Consumption

Biofertilizers are effective for plants or crops in many ways. They can be the main active element for the generation of the rhizosphere because they form a synergistic relationship with the root system to induce the production of the rhizosphere.

The rhizosphere is an area from which plants absorb their daily requirements of nutrients like phosphorus, sodium, iron, nitrogen, potassium, and water. And acts as a place for consuming carbon sources of the plant’s metabolism.

The food formation of plants is incomplete if rhizosphere bacteria are not available at their site. These microorganisms induce robust growth in plants by making nutrients available to them.

Nitrogen Fixation

Nitrogen is complementary to proteins, enzymes, and the genetic materials like DNA and RNA of any living organism, including plants. It mostly exists in the atmosphere—more than 70 percent—but the trouble is that it is in the form of a compound with other elements.

Breaking down nitrogen from other elements is impossible for the roots of plants. Here, nitrogen-fixing bacteria come into this place to take up almost all the atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into nitrates that are conveniently utilized by plants.

Nitrogen fixers are of two types: one is symbiotic and the other is free-living. Symbiotic nitrogen fixers stay in the roots of the leguminous plants in a specialized structure known as nodules.

Free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria such as Azotobacter (which remains in the soil) come into close contact with the root system within the rhizosphere ecosystem.

Some instances of such nitrogen fixers are Paenibacillus Polymyxa, Bacillus amyloliquifaciens, Bacillus Megaterium, and Bacillus Licheniformis.

Phosphate Solubilization

Phosphorus is available in the abundant form in the soil, but due to its binding structure with another element, it is difficult to capture by the plant’s roots.

Phosphorus is required for the bloom phase, or flowering phase, of the plants or crops.

Biofertilizers have plenty of phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria, making phosphorus ready for consumption in all kinds of agricultural products. They unlock the form of insoluble and immovable inorganic phosphate by producing organic acids such as lactic and formic acids.

Some bacteria produce enzymes called phosphatases that work on inorganic or immovable phosphates to break them down and convert them into a usable form.

Common examples are Bacillus megatorium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Paenibacillus Polymyxa, and Paenibacillus durum.

Boost Iron Availability

Iron or ferrous compounds play significant roles in the development of flowers and seedlings. A deficiency of iron causes abnormal photosynthesis and metabolism in plants.

Absorbing iron compounds from the soil is a major hurdle in the path of seedlings because they do not have the right properties to keep them for their utilization.

Various other rhizobacteria aid in unlocking potassium, iron, zinc, and sulfur for their consumption by plants by secreting many kinds of metabolites. Metabolites break the bond between iron and its compound and make them available for roots in the soil to absorb.

Biofertilizers like Bacillus megaterium, Pseudomonas species, and Bacillus Licheniformis are known for the production of enzymes and rhizobacteria.

Aid to Tolerate Abiotic Stress

Many growth-enhancing rhizobacteria generate various varieties of enzymes to tolerate abiotic stress. Certain rhizobacteria are helpful in preventing the state of salinity stress in the host plants by producing a variety of enzymes.

Organisms such as biofertilizers are effective in such acts. Some examples are Bacillus megaterium and Pseudomonas species, which are considered for the generation of many useful enzymes.

Conclusion

Biofertilizers consist of many microbial strains and bacteria, all of which are necessary for keeping at bay many plant-based troubles or diseases. Not only do they protect the plant species from degradation, but they also stay away from a huge variety of propagation of harmful plant diseases.

Terminating the use of harmful chemicals for plant growth and instead using biofertilizers is the best alternative. They are cost-effective and environmentally friendly options and intelligent choices for farmers and agro-based companies on multiple levels.

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