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Farmers are now facing a reduction in agricultural crop yield, due to the infertility of soils and poor farming. The application of chemical fertilizers distresses soil fertility and also human health. Inappropriate use of chemical fertilizer leads to the rapid decline in production levels in most parts of the world, and hence requires the necessary standards of good cultivation practice. Biofertilizers and biopesticides have been used in recent years by farmers worldwide to preserve natural soil conditions. Biofertilizer, a replacement for chemical fertilizer, is cost-effective and prevents environmental contamination to the atmosphere, and is a source of renewable energy. In contrast to chemical fertilizers, biofertilizers are cost-effective and a source of renewable energy that preserves long-term soil fertility. The use of biofertilizers is, therefore, inevitable to increase the earth’s productivity. A low-input scheme is feasible to achieve farm sustainability through the use of biological and organic fertilizers. This study investigates the use of microbial inoculants as biofertilizers to increase crop production.

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Nitrate NO(3)(-) contamination of groundwater resources is a serious problem. Such contamination in drinking water is regulated by environmental agencies around the world since at higher concentrations it can cause several health problems in infants. The aim of the present study was to identify the efficiency of the bacterial species isolated from nitrate-contaminated water and soil samples collected from Erode, Salem, Dharmapuri, and Krishnagiri districts of Tamilnadu, India. There are 74 morphologically different bacterial species were isolated and evaluated by a dissimilatory and assimilatory nitrate reduction test. Among the isolates, DW-27, DS-29, DS-31, DS-45, DS-46, and DS-47 were found to be potential dissimilatory and EW-6, ES-15, DS-39, DS-41, DS-48, DS-55, and SW-59 were potential assimilatory nitrate reducers. The results of bacterial analysis revealed that the isolated nitrate-reducing bacteria belonged to the genera Bacillus (64%) and Corynebacterium (22%), family Enterobacteriaceae (11%), and genus Alcaligenes (3%). This observation has led to the conclusion that these bacterial species showed efficiency of nitrate removal.