Comparative Study on Effect of Bio-Fertilizers and Chemical Fertilizers on Growth, Development and Yield of Paddy Crop (Oryza sativa)

Abstract

In response to rapidly increasing global human population from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 8 billion in 2022, global demand of food and food security is multiplying by folds every year. Factors like deforestation, land pollution, rapid urbanization etc. also leads to the availability of land available for agriculture. To cope with the increasing demand of food products, agricultural end products i.e pulses, grains, fruits, vegetables, oil seeds etc. farmers are dependent on synthetic/chemical fertilizers, these chemicals provide the plants with nutrients which boosts their growth and yield. These nutrients are naturally available in the soil but with time and when crops are grown on same patch of land again and again without following practices like crop rotation, these nutrients get depleted. These synthetic fertilizers, pesticides & herbicides have adverse  effect on physiological properties of the soil i.e reduced soil fertility, soil pH imbalance, depletion of beneficial microorganisms etc. Rain, flooding of fields often washes away the applied agrochemicals into the fresh water bodies causing water pollution.  There is no doubt in the fact that these chemical fertilizers do increase the growth and development of the crops but at the cost of environment. Compared to these agrochemicals biofertilizers are better alternative, Biofertilizers are living or dormant microbes that promote the growth, development and yield of the crops when applied in the soil and do not have any harmful effects like that of agrochemicals. They do boost the growth and development of the crops by use of mechanisms like nitrogen fixation, siderophore production, potassium solubilization, phytohormone production, phosphate solubilization etc. Biofertilizers are also capable of inducing plant growth promoting activities even under the biotic and abiotic stresses, they also provide resistance against many diseases by producing antibiotics. This research compares the effect of biofertilizers and chemical fertilizers on growth, development, yield of crops and also conc. Of nutrients and micronutrients of the obtained end product i.e fruit, grains