Potential of Biofertilizers in Sustaining the Productivity of Forage Crops: A Review.

The most important constraint limiting crop productivity in many parts of the world and especially among resource-poor farmers, is poor soil fertility. Maintenance of soil quality on sustainable bases can reduce the problems of soil degradation, decreasing soil fertility and rapidly declining factor productivity, a common concern in large parts of the world in today's agriculture production systems. Minerals, organic manures and microorganisms are three major components contributing for sustaining soil fertility and productivity. Among these, biofertilizers are the products containing different beneficial microorganisms which helpto meet the nutritional requirement of crops with minimum investments. Forages are least priority crops with many farmers. Thus, biofertilizers can be an important source to meet out the nutritional requirement of forage crops which are grown with minimum input supply. Commonly used bio-agents are nitrogen fixers, phosphorus and potassium solubilizers. Biofertilizers would play key role in maintaining soil productivity on sustainable basis and also in protecting the environment as eco-friendly and cost-effective inputs. Biofertilizers can improve productivity in a relatively short time, consume smaller amounts of energy and promote antagonism and biological control of phytopathogenic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]