6. Quality control measures

The biofertilizer should be evaluated for the following quality standards:

1. Inoculant should be carrier based or liquid based.
2. The inoculant should contain minimum of 10⁸ viable cells of bioinoculant/g of carrier on dry weight basis when it is stored at 25–30°C.
3. The inoculant should have at least 6 months shelf life from the manufacturing date in case of carrier based and 9 months in case of liquid based.
4. The pH of inoculant should be between 6.0 and 7.5.
5. Inoculant should show effective nodulation/nitrogen fixed on particular crop before expiry date.
6. The carrier material should be in the form of powder, i.e. peat, lignite, peat soil, and humus, etc.
7. Inoculant should be packed in 50–75 microns low-density polythene bags.
8. Each package should be marked legibly to give the information about name of the product, name of microbial inoculants, activity of bioinoculant, intended crop, name and address of manufacturer, type of carriers, batch and code numbers, date of manufacture, date of expiry, net quantity meant for 0.4 hectare, and storage instructions.
9. It should be free from any contaminant/contamination with other microorganisms.