Efficacy Testing of Bio-fertilizer Based on Azotobacter on Sweet Corn (Zea mays convar)

Excessive utilization of agrochemical fertilizers significantly leads to the decline of soil quality and its flora, it also affect human health. A material called bio-fertilizer contains living microorganisms that are advantageous to the growth and development of plants.Due to the impact of biofertilizers on enhancing crop yield, there is a growing focus on exploring beneficial microbes as biofertilizers within the agricultural domain. Consequently, this study was carried out to assess the efficacy of Azotobacterbiofertilizer on Sweet Corn ( Zea mays convar ).An experiment in a controlled artificial greenhouse setting involved 21 different treatments utilizing varying quantities of inoculants and carrier materials to create biofertilizer. The carrier material, derived from locally accessible raw materials such as cow dung, leaf litter, peat soil, lignite, charcoal, and vermiculite, serves as a substrate capable of hosting microbial inoculants and maintaining their viability for a specific duration, while also being easily accessible to farmers. Following the sowing of sweetcorn seeds for a month, the resulting germinated plants underwent analysis for parameters including plant height, stem girth, leaf count, length and width of leaves, as well as root length.The quantity of seed germination and the duration required for seeds to germinate were also recorded. Out of the 21 treatments, ST11, comprising 400 ml of inoculants combined with 300 g of carrier material, displayed higher values for plant parameters compared to the other treatments, although the statistical significance among all treatments was minimal. Each plant parameter responded differently to the various treatments. Contrary to the findings of others, the seeds immersed in microbial inoculant (ST2) did not notably enhance plant growth except for the number of leaves per plant. To validate the effectiveness of the formulated biofertilizer, a control was established: one set of seeds were sown solely in pot soil, while another contained only carrier material (ST21) without any microbial inoculant, which did not facilitate plant growth. Overall, plants treated with biofertilizer exhibited a positive response in terms of plant growth compared to the control group.