Nitragin KM — Long-Standing Reputation as the Best Domestic Biofertilizer for Soybeans

Today, traditional agrochemical methods of farming are being replaced by agriculture based on agrobiological methods that create conditions for soil microorganisms to work on increasing soil fertility, crop yields, and product quality indicators.

Soybean is an economically profitable and relevant crop that does not cause environmental damage, enriches the soil with nitrogen, and enjoys steady market demand.

Biofertilizers are the most important means of stimulating soybean growth and development, increasing crop resistance to unfavorable climatic factors, and enhancing cultivation profitability. Preparations containing nodule bacteria contribute to supplying plants not only with minerals but also with physiologically active substances.

"NITRAGIN" - a biofertilizer for leguminous plants - was first produced in 1896 in Germany. The preparation works by nodule bacteria of the genera Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium entering into symbiotic relationships with young roots of leguminous plants. Penetrating the root cell, they stimulate its growth and multiply within it. In this process, a symbiotic system is formed in which the plant and bacterial cells together synthesize a new substance called leghemoglobin. Leghemoglobin performs several functions: it supplies aerobic bacteria with oxygen and molecular nitrogen, protects the nitrogen-fixing apparatus of bacteria from the toxic effects of oxygen, and ensures effective fixation and biotransformation of molecular atmospheric nitrogen into forms available for assimilation by both microorganisms and the plant. Nodule bacteria supply leguminous plants with nitrogen that they fix from the air. Up to 90% of the fixed atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated by the plant, and the remainder by microorganisms (1-4).

Leguminous plants are capable of assimilating nitrogen from soil, but in the presence of symbiosis with nodule bacteria, legume yields are significantly - by 10-40% - higher than on initial soil, even well-fertilized. In addition, plants and their seeds grown in symbiosis with nodule bacteria contain more protein, which serves as an important quality indicator.

Artificial inoculation of leguminous plants with nodule bacteria grown under industrial conditions provides a significant increase in yield and grain quality of legume products, not only on soils that do not contain natural virulent cultures of nodule bacteria, but also on soils where such bacteria are present. It is known that effective symbiosis requires the introduction of approximately 500 billion virulent nodule bacteria cells per 1 ha of sowing area during planting.

Currently, many strains of nodule bacteria for soybeans have been isolated, selected, and maintained under artificial conditions worldwide. However, just as soybean breeding work continues, active searches for virulent, more biologically active strains of nodule bacteria continue to improve the efficiency of soybean cultivation in various regions of Russia.

Specialists at the "Scientific and Technical Center for Biological Technologies in Agriculture" have been developing biopreparations for agriculture for over ten years. One of the successful projects in this area is the development of the highly effective biofertilizer "Nitragin KM" for soybeans based on a selected strain of Bradyrhizobium japonicum, protected by a Russian Federation Patent (5).

The main advantage of the granular formulations developed by NTC "BIO" is the enhanced viability of microorganisms at all technological stages of the soybean sowing process and during the emergence period, even in cases of drought, low temperatures, and prolonged emergence.

"Nitragin KM" is a granular product ensuring a long shelf life for the culture.

The viability of the culture in the granular product is due to the use of an innovative solid-phase fermentation technology with a unique finely dispersed, physiologically neutral, sterile carrier for growing microorganisms.

To enhance symbiosis efficiency, adhesion of carrier particles, microorganisms and seeds, as well as for carbohydrate-microelement nutrition of microorganisms and plants, an organo-mineral complex (OMC) (carbohydrates, salts of Mo, Co, Zn, Mn, B, Cu, succinic acid, etc.) is applied in combination with "Nitragin KM." Working solution consumption (stable suspension) is 1 L per hectare seeding rate, containing 80 g of "Nitragin KM" and 100 ml of OMC.

The long-term steady growth in sales volumes of "Nitragin KM" under conditions of intense competition, not only with Russian but also with analogues from leading foreign companies, convincingly demonstrates its effectiveness and competitiveness.

Long-term field trials of "Nitragin KM" conducted in different regions of the country annually confirm its high effectiveness. Since 2008, "Nitragin KM" has undergone annual production testing at the Soybean Breeding Laboratory of the Ryazan Research Institute of Agriculture. Tests were conducted under various climatic factor loads. Moisture deficit during emergence, air temperatures during the growing season and bean formation period exceeding long-term averages by 5-11°C with only 7% of normal precipitation during the budding period affected soybean yields. However, the test results confirmed the biological justification and economic effectiveness of using the "Nitragin KM" preparation. For the Svetlaya and Kasatka varieties, soybean yield exceeded the control by 15-19%.

Field trials of the "Nitragin KM" preparation conducted at the Agriculture Department of the Belgorod State Agricultural Academy in a long-term field stationary experiment showed good effectiveness in promoting nodule formation on soybean roots and, ultimately, on crop yield. A 11.7-12.6% increase in yield of the Lantsetnaya soybean variety was achieved (6).

Under comparative testing conditions conducted at ZAO "Krasnoyaruzhskaya Grain Company" when growing the Belgorodskaya 6 soybean variety, a yield increase from 25.7 to 28.4 c/ha was obtained, which is 10.5%. Achieving such an increase at such a high yield level confirms the guaranteed high effectiveness of "Nitragin KM."

"Nitragin KM" has been used for a decade in various soil and climatic conditions (Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh, Lipetsk regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, as well as Orenburg and Amur regions).

Ten years of work on the preparation and improvement of technological methods at all stages of biotechnological production of the "Nitragin KM" biofertilizer have yielded a preparation that not only matches world analogues in quality but also significantly exceeds them in economic effectiveness of application.

In conditions of rising costs of imported analogues, the widespread use of "Nitragin KM" by agricultural enterprises will significantly improve the technical and economic indicators of soybean production.

The high pesticide load suppressing the physiological activity of soils requires biological protection through annual treatment of all sown legume grain. The use of biotechnological fertilizers significantly improves soil fertility, increases yields of subsequent crops, ensuring high profitability of soybean production even under unfavorable conditions, significantly enhancing the economic effectiveness of this production.

References

1. N.R. Asonov "Microbiology" / Moscow: VO "Agropromizdat", 1989. P. 153-154.
2. Edited by N.A. Krasilnikov, A.A. Uranov "Plant Life" / Moscow: "Prosveshcheniye", 1974. P. 354-377.
3. N.A. Bakulina, E.L. Kraeva "Microbiology" / Moscow: "Meditsina", 1976. 104 p.
4. A.I. Netrusov "Microbiology Practical Course" / Moscow: OIC "Akademiya", 2005. P. 454-455.
5. PATENT for invention No. 2426778 "Nodule bacteria strain Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain 206 VKPM B-9505, virulent to regionalized soybean varieties."
6. S.I. Smurov "Results of testing the Nitragin KM biofertilizer for soybeans produced by LLC "NTC BIO"" / UNIC "Agrotechnopark" of the Belgorod State Agricultural Academy. 2008.