ISSN: 0973-7510
E-ISSN: 2581-690X
Two isolates of agriculturally important nitrogen fixing microbes, Rhizobium meliloti and Azospirillium lipoferum were isolated from Western Maharashtra soil habitat. The standard isolation technique was carried out in laboratory and were characterized by 16SrDNA method. The growth of microbes was studied at different pH and the optimal pH was found to be 6.5 and 7 for Rhizobium meliloti and Azospirillium lipoferum respectively. The nodulation activity of Rhizobium meliloti was confirmed. Carrier plays an important role in maintaining sufficient shelf life so survival of microorganisms in different carriers at 280C was deduced and lignite was found to be the most efficient carrier for Rhizobium meliloti and Azospirillium lipoferum. Further these microorganisms were multiplied for mass production using Lignite as carrier. The biofertilizer was checked for colony count to meet the standard requirement (i.e. 107 CFU / gm).
Rhizobium meliloti, Azospirillium lipoferum, Biofertilizer, Lignite
© The Author(s) 2011. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.