There are numerous building blocks of life that plants need for healthy and optimum growth. Without these nutrients, plants cannot grow to their full potential, will provide lower yields, and be more susceptible to disease.
The NPK bio-fertilizer helps in providing nutrients (Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K)) essential for the plant. The NPK Consortia is a mixture of different microbes that live in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of the plant.
Species such as Rhizobium, Azotobacter and Acetobacter, PSB, and KMB help to assimilate atmospheric nitrogen, solubilize phosphorus and mobilize potassium to the crops. It converts complex nutrients present in non-available forms into simple forms absorbed by crops. It improves soil organic carbon, soil microbial population, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, and soil respiration. The addition of a microbial NPK consortium shows the best results in terms of plant height growth, percentage of plant growth, and yield as compared to other test treatments.
Advantages
• NPK consortia provide all three major nutrients through multiple microbial mechanisms.
• Application of NPK consortia results in better plant growth, crop yield, and quality.
• It increases drought resistance in plants
• It is safe and non-toxic to humans, plants, animals, and the environment
• It increases yield by 20 to 30%, improves soil aeration and water retention
• It delivers greater potential to compete with indigenous microbes
• The microbes present in NPK bio-fertilizer synthesize a considerable amount of biologically active substances like vitamins, nicotinic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, and gibberellin that help plants in better germination, early emergence, and better root development
Various studies have been performed to test the effectiveness of the NPK consortium. Rhizobium present in the formulation helps in converting di-nitrogen gas into ammonia and then into organic molecules such as amino acids. Azotobacters and Acetobacter also help in fixing nitrogen aerobically, solubilize phosphates, enhance plant hormones, improves seed germination, and also suppress phytopathogens. PSB converts the insoluble phosphate compounds to plant-available phosphate form and also produces plant growth hormones such as IAA and GA. Plant growth is also supported through the production of siderophore which increases the efficiency of nitrogen fixation. KMB mobilizes potash available in the soil for the plants and protects the plants from salinity injury. Plant inoculated with potassium mobilizing bacteria also accumulates more type of soluble carbohydrates. In addition, studies also proved that the consortium significantly increased growth and biochemical attributes and nutrient acquisition of plants grown even on fire-damaged and intact soils.
