Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

R&D Priorities for Biopesticide and Biofertilizer Products in India
during the past few years. Organic farming, the oldest form of agriculture on earth, offers
multiple benefits: price premiums, natural resource conservation (soil fertility, water quality,
prevention of erosion, preservation of natural biodiversity), and social advantages (generation of
rural employment, improved household nutrition, reduced dependence on external inputs). In
addition, organic food, medicinal herbs, spices, and essential oils are assuming greater export
potential. There is a huge export market for organic medicinal herbs as a raw material for health
care products. These herbs are bound to command considerably higher prices in international
markets, where the total world organic market is estimated to be USD22,000 million with an
annual growth rate of 20%–30%; it is often considered the fastest-growing agriculture sector.
The area under organic cultivation in India has increased substantially. Presently estimated at
more than 100,000 hectares (certified), it is expected to expand at a faster rate in the coming
years. This will require biological sources as nutritional and pesticide input supplements, and
thus there will be a significant demand for biofertilizer and biopesticide products.
BIOFERTILIZERS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Status in India
Biofertilizers are preparations containing live or latent cells of efficient strains of microbes
augmenting the availability of nutrients in a form which can easily be assimilated by plants. In
1983, 100 metric tons of biofertilizer was produced in India; by 2002–03 production had increased
almost 100-fold, to 90,000 metric tons. Currently there are 126 biofertilizer units engaged
in biofertilizer production, and the government has extended financial assistance to 73
biofertilizer units for commercial production. The Bureau of India Standards (BIS), in consultation
with the National Biofertilizer Development Center, has set IS specifications for the following
biofertilizers:
Rhizobium IS: 8268-2001
Azotobacter IS: 9138-2002
Azospirillum IS: 14806-2000
PSB IS: 14807-2000
It is estimated that production of biofertilizers by the existing units is far below the potential demand
of about 760 thousand TPA (Table 1).
Table 1. Estimated Potential Demand for
Commonly Used Biofertilizers, India
Type of biofertilizer Demand
(tons)
Rhizobium 34,999
Azotobacter 145,953
Azospirillum 74,342
Blue green algae 251,738
Phosphate-solubilizing
microorganism
255,340
Total 762,372
Source: National Biofertilizer Development
Center (NBDC) Ghaziabad
This estimated demand is based on the cultivated area and the treatment of the total seed
sown at the rate of 200g biofertilizer per 10 kg of seed. Although this assumption reflects only
the macro-level requirement, if even 50% of the cultivated area is to be brought under biofer-
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