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Biofertilier And Its Uses
Dr. Syed Manzoor Alam
With the increased population growth rates, especially in Muslim countries, there will be an
increased pressure on the agricultural lands for producing more food. Even marginal lands are
put to production and more demand now is directed to rain-fed agriculture for more output. All of
these demands for more outputs mean simply one thing “more inputs,” the most important and the most effective is the “Fertilizer Input”. FAO reports indicated that up to 50% of the growth in agricultural production that was witnessed in developing countries during the few past decades was due to the used chemical fertilizer. The fertilizers use rate is some of the countries of the region are among the
highest worldwide. In Egypt, for the example the national average for fertilizer consumption
was 347 kg/ha, in Saudi Arabia 336 kg/ha, Pakistan 73 kg /ha, while USA is 42 kg/ha and world
average is 28 kg/ha. Huge quantities of fertilizers are applied annually to soils all over the world (22 billion metric ton fertilizers, in addition to 16 million, metric ton of herbicides, 18 million metric
ton of insecticides and 12 million metric ton of fungicides).

All these chemicals that are taken by plants, absorbed by the soil, volatilize in the air or otherwise leached down with drainage water, join the groundwater and cause pollution. High levels of nitrates are very common in irrigated agriculture especially with intensive agriculture related to surface irrigation and high fertilizer rate. There is a matter of concern in Pakistan, as it is one of the countries consuming very large amounts of nitrogen per unit area. There are estimates that the use of nitrogen fertilizers will continuously increase till the year 2010. Optimizing the use of fertilizer and minimizing losses will help increasing the yield ensuring high quality, decreasing environmental hazards and probably will help the fertilizers industry to have a surplus production for export. The world Health Organization (WHO) estimated that around 1 million chemical compounds are used worldwide and millions of tons of these chemicals (poison) are used annually on our lands and in our environment. In US alone, it was estimated that about 60,000 newborn children are with some mental/physical retardation due to the pesticides used during the last 10 years.
Bio-organic farming offers the potential solution to the various problems facing the current agricultural practices. Bio-organic farming works in harmony with the natural system rather than to dominate encourages and enhances biological cycles within the farming system, furnishes conditions of life that allow all possible genetic diversity of agricultural system and its surroundings including the protection of plants and wild-life habitat by furnishing conditions of life that would allow all life forms to perform freely all aspects of their innate behavior. Bio-organic farming offers the potential solution to the various problems facing the current agricultural practices. Here, the choice is always being the choice of material, substances and/or practices, which are the least environmentally disruptive both at the micro and macro levels. The world population is increasing tremendously at a time, when food production continues to decline. Drought, salinization, unavailability of inputs and inappropriate utilization of resources are the main reasons that add to food shortage. Low-cost nitrogen is one of the requisites for the small rice farmers of the tropics and subtropics. Two events have stimulated research to provide low-income rice farmers with lower cost nitrogen for their rice fields. First, energy shortages have increased nitrogen fertilizers costs. Second, the efficiency of utilization of applied nitrogen by rice is markedly influenced by timing and placement of the applied nitrogen.
Rice has been grown for ages in several parts of the world. There are about 100 million hectares of paddy fields in the world and it constitutes nearly 20% of the total world food grain production. On the other hand, rice is considered a primary or secondary staple food for nearly 3 billion peoples, most of them are poor and live in developing countries. Blue-green algae and Azolla are important groups of microorganisms capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. They grow most abundantly in tropical and subtropical regions and are common in fooded rice paddy soils. Their possible role in the nitrogen accumulation in soil and providing the growing rice plants with considerable amounts of fixed-N has been reported in several parts of the world many years ago. Blue-green algae represents a self-supporting system of carrying out both photosynthesis and biological nitrogen fixation.
The energy bill for the latter process is being paid by sun. The amount of nitrogen fixed by glue-green algae is dependent on the algal species as well as physiological and environmental conditions. The amount of nitrogen fixed by BGA under laboratory condition varies markedly according to the algal species, the type of medium, incubation period, and growth condition. These amounts ranged between 22-270 mg/100 ml medium. Whereas, the amount of nitrogen fixed by BGA under field conditions ranges between 15-80 kg/ha according to the algal species, fertilization, soil and environmental conditions. Blue-green algae liberates large quantities of ammonia extra-cellulary as well as a variety of organic compound and some growth promoting substances.

Azolla is a floating aquatic firm. It grows vigorously in drainage canals, ponds, paddy fields and stagnant pools of rivers and widely distributed in tropical and temperate zones. Azzolla contains in the cavities of its leaflets a hetercystous filamentous BGA called Anabaena azollae. It contains 3-4% dry matter and 4-5% nitrogen. Aolla may grow at a temperature of 14-30 C with optimum 25-30 C. The optimum relative humidity of 85-91% of soil pH 5-8. The doubling time of Aolla varies depending on the species, locality and growth condition. Azolla anabaena symbiosis has proven to be effective also as a source of N for rice. The use of Azolla as green manure, feed for domestic animals and composting of Azolla were reported in china. Azolla under the most favorable condition can fix 7.8-9.7 mg N/g dry weight/day. Azolla releases about 12-20% of its fixed N as ammounia into the surrounding emdium. Estimates of total nitrogen inputs of Aolla in paddy soils are rather variable. Estimations of 100-160 kg N/ha/4 months and 500 kg N/ha/year were recorded. Azolla is grown in small plots or ponds as a monocrop. It is then transferred to the rice field and incorporated into the paddy soil as a green manure before rice transplating. Azolla is grown as an intercrop with rice by spreading Azolla on the surface of water in rice field. After growth, Azolla either incorporated as a green manure or allowed to die naturally without incorporation. Azolla is grown as both monocrop and intercrop. Azolla has high nitrogen content and a favourable C/N ration, which allows it to decompose rapidly. When incorporated into the soil, Azolla helps to increase soil organic and improves soil chemical and physical properties. Azolla starts to decompose in 5-10 days and begins to release its nitrogen. The rate of decomposition is significantly affected by the variety, stage of maturity and soil environment. Some rice varieties are more responsive to inoculation with Azolla. For more than 100 years, the legume symbiosis was known to be the most efficient way of transforming atmospheric nitrogen into plant nutrients. Legumes crops such as green gram, mung, pigeon pea, cow pea, chickpea, lentil, ground nut, clover, guar, soybean, berseem and fenugneak are very important in N-fixation. Thus, in view of the increasing cost of chemical fertilizer, the use of bio-fertilizers is very essential in the present day for increasing the agricultural products.

Flower Power
By R. A. Chan
Yang Bin, China’s richest businessman, is building a replica of The Hague on the plains of Manchuria as part of his challenge to Holland’s domination of the world tulip market.Seven years after entering the flower business, Yang has amassed a £700 million fortune and become China’s wealthiest entrepreneur, according to America’s Forbes magazine. Most of his money has come from growing orchids and tulips for sale overseas.

His flower empire is supplied by thousands of glasshouse growers across China who are using cheap Labour to supply cut flowers and bulbs at below Dutch prices. The Chinese desire to overtake the Dutch in horticulture is being carried to extreme lengths by Yang, who is using part of his wealth to contract a £200 million theme park near Shenyang City featuring some of the most famous buildings in Holland. He is presiding over the project personally from his offices in a full-scale replica of the Dutch Royal Palace. Other buildings in the 1,000-acre park include a replica of the International Courts of Justice in The Hague and Amsterdam’s Central railway station.
The scheme to re-create the capital of the Netherlands has even attracted strong support from local Communist Party chieftains, who dispatched teams of prisoners under armed guard to help finish work on the 50 buildings already under construction. The scheme has appalled investors in Yang’s companies, however. Many believe that the theme park will become a costly white elephant. Shares in Yang’s Euro-Asia Agricultural Holding have fallen from 29p to 13p on the Hong Kong stock exchange since news of the theme park leaked out at the beginning of the year.
Yang, however, believes that 10 million of Manchuria’s 200 million people will be willing to pay the equivalent of £10 for a day-pass to the park at least once a year, although the average wage is just £60 a month. Even the normally docile state-run media find the claim unbelievable.
Yang is not alone in his obsession with all things Dutch. The government of the southern province of Yunnan is planning to build an open air flower exchange that will rival the auction markets of Holland.
China’s almost limitless access to cheap Labour – and the flower-growing business is highly Labour intensive – means that Chinese horticulturalists are able to undercut Dutch prices. Even after the costs of vacuum-packing and air-freighting the flowers to Europe are added, Chinese tulips are still cheaper than Dutch-grown ones. “We have developed our techniques to the point where our tulips are good enough to satisfy demand,” said He Liangcai the general manager of Gesan Floriculture, a large horticulturalist, “We not only want to meet demand but we also want the lion’s share of the market domestically and overseas.” Chinese tulips are grown in vast hothouses hundreds of meters long by workers who earn as little as £2 a day, far less than the average hourly wage in Holland.
Nor are the growers encumbered by European Union regulations on the use of fertilizers and pesticides, as the Dutch are, so are able to produce flowers faster and cheaper than their foreign competitors. The Chinese cost advantage has even attracted a number of Dutch growers to China to produce tulips for safe back home. The Dutch growers moving to China are bringing the bulbs, soil, materials and design for the most up-to-date greenhouses. They hope they will be exporting tulips to Holland within five years. “The domestic quality of tulips in China is not very good,” said Gerard Langedijk, who has started a hothouse business near Beijing. “But it is only a matter of time.”
The profits from flower exports may yet spark a popular mania for all things Dutch in China. If so, Yang and his theme park will be vindicated. He is already dismissing his critics by pointing out that his profits are expected to double to £45 million this year – thanks to tulips.


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