Ramanathapuram sees a spurt in demand for bio-fertilizers

‘It improve soil health and triggers growth of micro organisms’

Production of liquid bio-fertilizers at the District Bio-fertilizer Production Unit in Ramanathapuram.

The District Bio-Fertilizer Production Unit has set targets to produce 100 metric tonnes of carrier based bio-fertilizers in powder form and 50,000 litres of liquid bio-fertilizers during 2019-2020 following spurt in demand for bio-fertilizers among the farmers.

The bio-fertilizer production unit, one of the 22 units in the State has been producing carrier based bio-fertilizers since 1986 and also liquid bio-fertilizers in the last five years. Like last year, this year too, targets have been set to produce the two types of bio-fertilizers, officials said.

Bio-fertilizers produced in the unit were distributed to farmers in the district and in the districts of Thoothukudi and Tiruchi through Agriculture Extension centres of the respective districts. Farmers also directly visited the unit and purchasing the fertilizers, they said. There was a spurt in the demand for liquid bio-fertilizers as it was easy to carry and apply, officials said.

The district unit has already produced and distributed 60 metric tonnes of carrier based bio-fertilizers and 27,000 litres of liquid bio-fertilizers and was all set to exceed this year’s target, officials said. As the fertilizers helped to improve soil health and triggered growth of micro organisms, farmers showed more interest in applying bio-fertilizers, officials said.

Farmers who had been using chemical fertilizers were switching over to bio-fertilizers after Agriculture department officials explained the importance of resorting to organic farming for pollution free environment and for conserving the native fossil reserves, they said. Organic farming would also help farmers to make additional income through exports, they added.

The unit produced two strains each in Azospirillium and Rhizobium – the free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium and one strain in Phospo bacteria. Azosprillium could be used for paddy, sorghum, cumbu, coconut, minor millets and vegetables and Rhizobium could be used for pulses and groundnut, they said adding phosphor bacteria could be used for all crops. Farmers could contact officials in their regions and check the prescribed level of bio-fertilisers for different crops, they said.