Role of potassium solubilizing bacteria in crop production: An overview

Potassium is one of the essential nutrients required by plant for multiple purposes like growth of root and stem, activation of enzymes, opening and closing of stomata, triggers osmoregulatory process etc. It is abundant in soil but most of the time unavailable to the plants because of its availability in bound or adsorbed forms. Many strains of microbes present in soil act on insoluble form of potassium to solubilize or mobilize this form to available form known as potassium solubilizing bacteria (KSB). The soil which is deficient or excess in potassium, the application of such strains of microbes enhanced the availability of potassium to the plant. Use of such microbes is found very effective in maintaining the availability of potassium nutrient to the crop while decreases the dependency on inorganic fertilizers for compensating the demand of plants. Nowadays, the role of KSB is widely accepted hence it can help to maintain the availability of potassium as well as enhance the production of crop.