Seaweed: A Novel Organic Biomaterial

The seaweeds are macroscopic living resources having significant amount of growth regulators, macronutrients as well as micronutrients which are essential for the growth of crop plants. The fertilizers that are derived from seaweeds are known as new generation fertilizers or modern fertilizers which are devoid of harmful effects of chemicals. Seaweeds contains considerable amount of nutrients which are easily absorbed by plants hence beneficial for the positive growth of crop plants. In the present situation seaweeds are found to be more suitable to crop plants to increase growth parameters as compared to chemical fertilizers. The positive effects of seaweed have been observed in many crops like Cajanus cajan, Abelmoschus esculentus, Arachis hypogea, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba, Lablab purpureus, Cicer arietinum etc. This review helps in encouraging the students and research scholars towards the uses of different seaweeds on growth and development of many crop plants.