Determining the Importance of Liquid Biofertilizers in Rice Cultivation under Organic Farming

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important staple cereal foods in Asian continent. The day to day advances in science and technology have increased the rice production capacity to feed the world population, which is increasing rapidly year after year. On other hand, the farmers are gradually switching over to organic farming coupled with traditional rice due to emerging demand among the consumers for traditional rice cultivars. The non-judicious use of inorganic fertilizers over years by the rice growers has become a threat to the farmers inclined to organic farming. Therefore, it becomes imperative to explore the most effective organic nutrient sources for sustaining the soil fertility and rice productivity. Keeping this in view, Front Line Demonstration (FLD) was organized in 10 locations of Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu to popularize TNAU liquid biofertilizers viz., Azospirillum, Phosphate solubilizing bacteria, K Solubilizer, Zn solubilizers, PPFM under two different traditional rice growing ecosystem during Rabi 2020. The results revealed that application of liquid biofertilizer offered more productive tillers (13.7 & 14.9 numbers), additional grain yield ( 9.9 and 12.6 %) and straw yield (10.5 & 10.2%) in both the traditional rice cultivars viz., Karuppu kavuni (5100 kg/ha) and Mapillai samba (5350kg/ha) respectively. Similarly, a quantum leap in net return was observed as a result of use of recommended biofertilizer. The study revealed that, Rs.157350/ha and Rs.63100/ha followed by a benefit cost ratio of 3.8 and 2.2 were observed in Karuppu kavuni and Mapillai samba respectively while using the recommended liquid biofertilizers. The use of liquid biofertilizer favorably increased the availability of soil nutrient status by converting the non-available form of nutrients to available form. Finally, it can be concluded that, for obtaining higher potential yield and economic returns from traditional rice cultivars, the application of recommended liquid bio-fertilizers is highly essential. Further, promoting the practice of biofertilizer application by the traditional rice growers may pave way for enhanced nutritional security among rural mass.