Growth and Effect on Pea (Pisum Sativum l.) of Fertilizers – A Review: The Role of Biofertilizers in Sustainable Pea Crop Production

Abstract

Modern agriculture is getting more and more dependent upon the supply of synthetic inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides etc. which are inevitable to meet food demand for growing population in the world. However, excessive, imprudent and imbalanced use of these inputs may throw devastating impacts on the water, air and soil environments. Probably the soil environment is the most vulnerable to the direct effects of these practices in modern agriculture. They could destroy the fertility of the soil in a long run which compels the scientific community to look for the alternatives like organic farming. Biofertilizers are one of the most important tools in organic Agriculture. Biofertilizers are prepared from live or latent cells of different microorganisms and applied to seed, soil or composting areas to augment the availability of nutrients and to improve fertility status of soil. The role and importance of bio-fertilizers in sustainable crop production has been reviewed by several authors and found that application of NPK as a source of chemical fertilizer integrated with vermicompost and biofertilizers were found to be superior with regards to yield and yield-attributing characters over control and sole application of 100% recommended dose of chemical fertilizers. The pea plant can readily absorb and utilize the nutrients and express the highest value in all characters and finally the pod yield under combined application of organics and inorganics.