Abstract :
Nitrogen fixing, phosphate solubilizing and potash mobilizing bacterial strains were isolated from rhizosphere soil of agricultural land, the isolated bacterial strains were further characterized by a series of biochemical reactions and identified as genus Azotobacter, Bacillus and Pseudomonas respectively. A technology for their mass multiplication and their bio-formulation has been developed. Fly-ash was used as carrier materials for bio-formulation development of bio-fertilizer strains. Shelf-life studies of the bio-formulations were carried out during storage period. The selected isolates were found
to be potent nitrogen fixer, phosphate solubilizers showing clear halo zone around their colonies and potash mobilizer showing mobilization of potassium on respective medium. A general decline in cfu count was noticed in fly-ash based bio-formulations. All the bio-formulations however, retained more
than 108 cfu/g viable propagules up to 270 days. The present studies were shown encouraging results in respect to fly-ash as carrier materials for bio-fertilizer strains which are comparable to other commercially available carrier materials.
Keyword :
Bacterial strains; Bio-fertilizer; Bio-formulation; Fly-ash; Shelf-life.