Centre’s Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) has approved a grant of Rs. 1.5 crore to help set up the 50,000 liters liquid biofertilizer plant which will be situated at the campus.
Soubhagya Manjari Samantaray, the project’s principal investigator and assistant professor of microbiology at OUAT’s College of Basic Sciences and Humanities stated that they had started the commercial production a few days ago. He further added, “We had received an order from Krishi Vigyan Kendras across the state and accordingly produced around 500 liters of liquid biofertilizers in the past two days.”
Accordingly, the biofertilizer has a shelf life of one year and helps in yield output. The professor elaborated on the mechanism, stating that the farmers would have to add around four liters of water in 500 ml of biofertilizers and soak 10-15kg seeds in the prepared solution. The seeds need to be soaked for about 20 minutes.
Currently, the biofertilizer is being sold at a significantly lower price of Rs. 230 as against the market cost of Rs. 430.
The director of the college of basic science and humanities, C.K. Mishra, stated, “It is an affordable product and we will soon go into large-scale production. The nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium will naturally get into the plant and help the farmer get a better yield. It can also be applied on the soil in some cases.”
Presently, they have started using biofertilizers in legume cultivation but in the near future, the institute hopes to be able to work on producing liquid bio-fertilizers for rice crops using Azotobacter. OUAT vice-chancellor Pravat Kumar Roul stated that the liquid biofertilizers would also help give a push to the natural farming movement. “Our university is doing this in a commercial mode to help the farmers. This is the latest version of a fertilizer which has a shelf life than the ones sold in the solid state,” Roul stated.
The university has also tried to get students involved in the project and help them train and develop their entrepreneurial skills.
