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Bio-fertilizers: Eco-Friendly Approach for Plant and Soil Environment

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Bioremediation and Biotechnology

Abstract

The bio-fertilizers have attained a huge attention in the crop lands due to improving harvest yields, decreasing the chemical fertilizers cost, and being less harmful to the environment. Bio-fertilizers could stimulate the growth of plant through either direct or indirect mechanisms. Three biochemical steps are involved in bio-fertilizer preparation that consist of breaking down of complex substances into simpler ones in anaerobic digestion process. Four main stages and three major bacterial groups can be considered in order to simplify this process. Bio-fertilizer can be applied into soil or in seed inoculants for multiple crop production and nutrient cycling. The conditioning property of bio-fertilizer increased the organic matter of the soil which improves soil structure and prevents soil erosion and desertification and increases soil water retention capacity. Therefore, application of bio-fertilizers may serve as low-cost and environment-friendly strategy for a sustainable crop production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil and Water Testing Laboratory for Research, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Umair Riaz

  2. Rapid Soil Fertility, Survey & Soil Testing Institute-Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Shahzada Munawar Mehdi

  3. Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Shazia Iqbal, Hafiza Iqra Khalid, Ayesha Abdul Qadir & Ghulam Murtaza

  4. Department of Agronomy, Regional Agricultural Research Institute (RARI), Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Wajiha Anum

  5. Soil Science Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Munir Ahmad

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  1. Umair Riaz
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  2. Shahzada Munawar Mehdi
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  3. Shazia Iqbal
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  4. Hafiza Iqra Khalid
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  7. Munir Ahmad
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  8. Ghulam Murtaza
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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Princess Dr. Najla Bint Saud Al-Saud, Center for Excellence Research in Biotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid Rehman Hakeem

  2. Department of Environmental Science, Cluster University, Sri Pratap College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Rouf Ahmad Bhat

  3. Department of Environmental Science, Cluster University, Sri Pratap College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Humaira Qadri

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Riaz, U. et al. (2020). Bio-fertilizers: Eco-Friendly Approach for Plant and Soil Environment. In: Hakeem, K., Bhat, R., Qadri, H. (eds) Bioremediation and Biotechnology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35691-0_9

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