This in-house technology of mycorrhiza production developed by the scientists at TERI has been sold to Cadila Pharmaceuticals which plans to produce and sell it nationwide through their marketing set up.

This bio-fertiliser is applicable to various kinds of vegetables like onions and potatoes, flowers like marigold, gladioli, aster and rose, fodder crops like ber seem, lucerne, sorghum and trees like eucalyptus, poplar and babool. It took TERI scientists eight long years to bring this technology to commercial level.

Mycorrhiza are a mixture of fungi that attach themselves to plant roots and develop a symbiotic relationship with them. They are able to fix nitrogen from air, absorb phosphorous from the soil and transfer it to the plant and source other nutrients which are present in low concentrations in the soil for plants.

The use of mycorrhizaresults in low input of chemical fertilisers, enhances productivity, improves soil health, retains soil around plant roots, prevent plant diseases, ensures sustainable production as these micro-organisms are self-propogating. Scientists at TERI identified specific strains for many species of vegetables, fruits, flower plants and trees. ]These were then multiplied in the laboratory. Using the same technology, TERI has been able to green tracts of flyash ponds and wastelands, something that would seem impossible just a few years back.