Rhizobium Research Programme

The Rhizobium Biofertilizer (RBF) project at the NIFS, named ‘Rhizobium Inoculum Research &
Production Facility’ was started in 2012 with the objective of conducting R&D on biological nitrogen
fixation and legume-Rhizobium symbiosis in order to produce RBF for commercialization. By now,
the RBF is a commercial product being used in legume cultivation in the country. It is used for the
cultivation of soybean, mung bean, vegetable bean, groundnut, black gram, long bean, cowpea, and
clover by completely cutting off the requirement of urea in the crops in an eco-friendly manner.
Thus far, the NIFS has distributed the RBF for 67,225 acres of the crop cultivations. The maximum
annual extent of legume cultivation with RBF has been about 15,000 acres to date. This is being
expanded to cover the entire land extent of legume cultivations, which is about 150,000 acres
annually.

From our research, it was found an innovative method of RBF application together with Biofilm
biofertilizer (BFBF) for legumes with crop yield benefits. This is the first record of the use of RBF with
BFBF for legume cultivations. Thus, the combined use of RBF as a seed treatment, and the BFBF as a
top dressing or as a soil spray for legumes as well as vegetables is being promoted at present.

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