Biofertilizers as complements to synthetic and organic fertilization

© 2014 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.Biofertilizers are agrobiotechnological products composed by microorganisms that are added to the agricultural crops to stimulate growth and production. Although they are sometimes considered as substitutes of the synthetic fertilizers, they indeed have been shown to act complementarily to chemical and organic fertilizers to improve plant performance. Synthetic fertilizers are added to the crops to support plant growth and foster crop production, but regrettably at most 50% of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers can be absorbed by the plants. Microorganisms can positively affect plant performance in different ways, but they can also increase the percentage of the synthetic fertilizers that can be absorbed by the plants. In this chapter we will analyze the use of biofertilizers as complements to synthetic and organic fertilizers and the beneficial output of considering a chemical-organic-biological approach in crop production.

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