Bio Fertilizers PS: 5330 ; Fertilizers (ICS 65.080)

Bio Fertilizers PS: 5330 ICS No. 65.080 (14 page(s), in English)

This Pakistan Standard was adopted by Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority on 26-11-2014, after the draft finalized by the Fertilizers and Allied Product Technical Committee and approved by the National Standards Committee for Chemical Division.

Biofertilizers (BF) are popularizing fast across globe as environment friendly agricultural input to increase fertilizers/nutrients use efficiency, improve crop productivity and maintain soil fertility. Formulations of BF are based on beneficial microorganisms or metabolites of microbes that support plant growth through variety of mechanisms such as N₂-fixation; solubilization and mobilization of plant nutrients; phytohormone production; siderophore production; chitinase and ACC-deaminase activity. P solubilizing bacteria based biofertilizers increase bioavailability of P present in soil and applied by fertilizers; N₂-fixers improve N nutrition of plants; Zn solubilizers improve Zn availability to plants; siderophore producers enhance Fe bioavailability and phytohormone producers directly play vital role in plant growth. Beneficial microorganisms based Biofertilizers have multiple simultaneous impact on increasing nutrients bioavailability and boosting plant growth. Environmental friendly biofertilizers have great potential to play significant role in optimizing farmer economics, achieving food security and improving crop productivity in alkaline soils and harsher climatic conditions of Pakistan. Biofertilizers generally consist of living organisms that survive on organic carriers thus need special criteria for formulations, use and shelf life.