Use of Bio-fertilizers and Organic Inputs - as LISA ... · PDF fileUse of Bio-fertilizers and Organic Inputs - as LISA technology by farmers of Sangamner . Prajakta patil. 1, Pradnya

International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 7, July-2013 28 ISSN 2278-7763

Copyright © 2013 SciResPub. IJOART

Use of Bio-fertilizers and Organic Inputs - as LISA technology by farmers of Sangamner Prajakta patil1, Pradnya Ghag2 and Sangram Patil3 Abstract Modern farming practices affect our world, by the way of land degradation, nutrient runoff, soil erosion, water pollution, soil compaction, loss of cultivated biodiversity, habitat destruction, contaminated food and destruction of traditional knowledge systems. These all result into changing climatic conditions of the earth. Farmers are directly getting affected due to these climate changes as it affects the crop production. Sudden change in normal weather conditions sometimes results into the total crop failure. These ill effects of modern agriculture and climate change can be delineated by adopting organic farming. This paper summarizes use of biofertilizers and organic fertilizers by the farmers in Sangamner region of Maharashtra as low input Sustainable agricultural technology (LISA). Though the use of chemicals in agriculture is inevitable to meet the growing demand for food in world, there are opportunities in some areas where organic production can be encouraged to tape the domestic export market. Farmers are now using the biofertilizers, Vermicompost, Poultry manure, Jeevamrit as source of organic manures in their fields in Sangamner. There are actually a wide variety of biofertilizers that have been evolved through universities and independent research labs, but these are not disseminated upto the 100 % farmers. Sustainable use and conservation of natural resources are the key components to face the problem of soil degradation and climate change. Key Words: Organic, biofertilizers, Vermicompost, Rhizobium, Pseudomonas Introduction:

Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) aims to find out alternative, healthful options to getting rid of problems of modern agriculture that means ecofriendly farming through less use of chemicals in crop production. The chemical give an immediate effect on crop production for small duration but creates long term ill effects on environment. Organic manures are helpful to improve the physical and chemical properties which results into increasing soil fertility and productivity. Organic fertilizers which are ecofriendly and can be prepared by the farmer himself on his farm by using locally available materials which are found to be more suitable for the increasing crop production as well as serves as low cost agricultural input. Organic farming has emerged as an important priority area in view of the growing demand for safe and healthy food and long term sustainability and concerns on environmental pollution associated with indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. The main reason for this is the motivation of farmers done by WOTR through adoption of various methods such as Method demonstrations, Result demonstrations, Farmers exposure trips, Weather based agro advisories, farmer’s school etc

1:Prajakta Patil- Agricultural Research Officer, WOTR, Pune-9 2:Pradnya Ghag - Research Analyst, WOTR and CCA Project, Pune-9 3:Sangram Patil- Research Assistant, WOTR and CCA Project, Pune-9

IJOART



Methodology:

Survey of Sangamner region has been done during 2011-2012 for different agricultural practices followed by the farmers. There were eight villages selected for this survey viz; Savargaon Ghule, Sarole Pathar, Warudi Pathar, Malegaon Pathar, Gunjalwadi, Karjule Pathar, Kauthe Khurd, and Bhojdari. Then plan for field demonstration plots has been prepared and according to which the 160 Farmers have been selected for different organic farming practices in kharif 2012. Some crops such as Ground Nut, Paddy, Maize, Tomato, and Onion have been selected for various treatments of biofertilizers, vermicompost. Rhizobium seed treatment has been given to ground nut, Pseudomonas to maize while azotobacter and azospirillium to sorghum and paddy @ 250g/10 kg of seeds. Vermicomposting beds (4m x 2m) have been prepared by the farmers on their fields by using locally available plant residues. Jeevamrit is also a source of biofertilizer as it provides inoculants of different strains of soil microorganisms. It has been prepared on large scale by the farmers and applied @ 200 liters/acre. For preparation of 200 litres of jeevamrit it requires 10 litres of cow urine, 100 gm of soil from root zone of banyan tree, 500grams of gram flour mixed thoroughly in a drum which contains 190 litres of water and kept for 8-10 days period in drum for fermentation with intermediate stirrings. The field observations were regularly recorded by researchers in the field as well as farmers was guided through conducting farmer’s school.

Village Map:

Results and Discussion: Biofertilizers used by the farmers are majorly nitrogen fixing bacteria, Phosphorus Solubilizing bacteria, Jeevamrit, and organic fertilizers are Vermicompost, Farm Yard Manure, and Poultry Manure in study villages. Organic manures are useful to enhance the physical as well as chemical properties of soil .Organic matter acts directly as a source of plant nutrients and indirectly influence the physical and chemical properties (Kumar and Dhar) Organic manures are benefiting the farmers by giving positive results such as, increased plant vigor, less nutrient requirement

IJOART



through chemical fertilizers, increased water holding capacity of soil, increased crop production. The various organic formulations used by the farmers in the villages have been summarized as follows.

1. Biofertilizers: Bio-fertilizers are being essential component of organic farming .These are the preparations containing live or latent cells of efficient strains of nitrogen fixing, phosphate solubilising or cellulolytic micro-organisms used for application to seed, soil or composting areas with the objective of accelerating microbial processes which augment the availability of nutrients that can be easily absorbed by plants. They are in fact being promoted to harvest the naturally available, biological system of nutrient mobilization (Venkatashwarlu, 2008a). The role and importance of biofertilizers in sustainable crop production has been reviewed by several authors (Biswas et al. 1985; Wani and Lee, 1995; Katyal et al. 1994).Farmers are using the various inoculants of bacteria and fungi which has been given in Table1. Table 1: Bio-fertilizers used by Farmers S. No.

Groups Strains

N2 fixing Biofertilizers 1 Symbiotic Rhizobium 2 Associative Symbiotic Azospirillum 3 Free-living Azotobacter P Solubilizing Biofertilizers 1 Bacteria Bacillusmegaterium var. phosphaticum, Bacillus

subtilis 2 Fungi Penicillium sp, Aspergillus awamori Biofertilizers for Micro nutrients 1 Silicate and Zinc

solubilizers Bacillus sp.

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria 1 Pseudomonas Pseudomonas fluorescens

The nitrogen fixing biofertilizers are Rhizobium, Azotobacter and Azospirillum. Rhizobium is a symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria which is used for ground nut, gram, chick pea and soybean @ 25g/kg of seed in the region.

These different Rhizobium strains have been used by the 20 farmers of villages as demonstration plots and other farmers selected for their indigenous method of ground nut cultivation. In general Rhizobium can fix the nitrogen from 57 -100 kg/ha (Wagner). Thus, it helps to increase the amount of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil which can be readily absorbed by the plants. Increase in plant height and average number of nodules per plant has been observed in demonstration plots than farmers practice for ground nut. These results are in conformity with Sulochana and Gadgi (2010).

IJOART



Table 2: Effect of Rhizobium seed treatment on Ground nut

Sr. No.

Treatment Plant height at maturity (cm)

Average no. of nodules /plant at harvest

Yield from 1m2 area of plot (gram) at harvest

1 Farmer’s Practice

32.6 17.3 156

2 Rhizobium Seed Treatment

38.9 27 243

Azospirillum is an associative symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria. Seed treatment has been given to Rice, Sorghum, and Maize @ 25 g/kg of seed. Apart from nitrogen fixation, there are some additional benefits of Azospirillum inoculation to the seed such as:

a) It increases disease resistance and drought tolerance b) It also promotes production of growth promoting substance i.e. IAA The effect has been observed on Maize, and Paddy crops in the region specifically in case

of growth contributing characters of the crop similar findings has been observed by Wagner, S. C. (2012) .

Azotobacter is used as a free living nitrogen fixing biofertilizer for the oilseeds such as mustard, linseed and for the millets such as pearl millet, finger millets, and kodomillets in the region.

Phosphate solubilizing biofertilizers used for the seed treatments are both bacteria and fungi. Two bacterial strains have been used in the region Bacillus megaterium var. phosphaticum and Bacillus subtilis while Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus awamori are used as fungi which solubalises phosphate. Bacillus spp. is also helpful in Silicate and Zinc solubilizing processes.

Pseudomonas fluorescens is used as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria which showed increase in growth contributing characters of the plant. It has been observed that Pseudomonas treatment shows increased height of maize plants, number of functional leaves/plant as well as number of cobs/plant than the farmer’s practice.

Table 3: Impact of biofertilizer seed treatment on Maize Sr. No.

Crop Treatment Plant height (cm)

No. of functional leaves /plant (at Silking)

No.of cobs/plant (At harvest)

1 Maize Farmer’s Practice

120 7.8 1.2

2 Pseudomonas seed treatment

135 9.6 1.4

2. Jeevamrit: Jeevamrit is used as a source of biofertilizer and applied at the rate of 200 lit/acre through irrigation water with fifteen days interval. The effect has been observed on bulb size of the onion

IJOART



Table 4: Effect of Jeevamrit on average size of onion bulb. Sr. No. Crop Treatment Average Diameter of onion

bulb(cm) 1 Onion Farmer’s Practice 5.3

Vermicompost 6.8 3. Vermicompost: vermicompost units of 4 x 2 m have been constructed by the farmers on their farm . They are using vermicompost as replacement for farm yard manure. Farmers have noticed the difference in using Vermicompost and FYM in their fields in terms of production of Maize and Onion (Table 5) Vermicomposting shows higher yields than farmers practice in both maize and onion. similar results have been reported by Rao et al., (2010).

Table 5: Effect of vermicompost on yield of Maize and onion Sr. No. Crop Treatment Grain yield (kg/acre)

1 Maize Farmer’s Practice 1620 Vermicompost 1956

2 Onion Farmer’s Practice 14800 Vermicompost 16350

The other sources of organic fertilizers include green manuring crops, Neem cake, Karanj cake and Poultry manure. Among all of these Poultry manure is used by few farmers in the region specifically for vegetable crops as it retains more moisture within the soil. It supplies secondary nutrients i.e. Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur and micronutrients such as Molybdenum, Manganese, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Sodium .Most the crops, especially paddy, sugar cane, plantation crops, floriculture and horticultural crops respond well to poultry manure (Zublena et al., 1997). Though cattle compost manure is known to our farmers not many are familiar with poultry manure; because modern poultry farms have emerged in India just four decades back and also confined to a few pockets. This affects its availability in the region. Conclusion: Organic formulations and biofertilizers play an important role in development of soil structure and nutrient availability which supports the entire plant growth system. Following strategies should be followed for sustainable agriculture development in the region Identification/ selection of efficient location/ crop/soil specific strains for N-fixing, P, Zn

Solubilizing and absorbing (mycorrhizal) to suit different agro climatic conditions of Sangamner. Technical training on the production and quality control to the farmers Use of improved strain in project villages through biotechnological methods Developing suitable alternate formulations viz., liquid inoculants / granular formulations for all

bioinoculants. Organizational training to the extension workers( Vasundhara sevak /Agronomists/ Para-

agronomist) and farmers to popularize the technology Dissemination of information through mass media, publications and group discussions. Arranging exposure visits of farmers on organic farming Result demonstration plots of any one new agricultural innovation in every village Arranging KrishiMela/ Agri-Exhibition at village level for group of villages to encourage farmers.

IJOART



References: Biswas, B.C. Yadav, D.S., and Satish Maheshwari, 1985. Bio-fertilizers in Indian Agriculture. Fertilizer News 30(10): 20-28. Venkatashwarlu, B. 2008. Role of bio-fertilizers in organic farming: Organic farming in rain fed agriculture: Central institute for dry land agriculture, Hyderabad.pp. 85-95. Katyal, J.C., Venkatashwarlu, B., and Das, S.K. 1994.Biofertilizer for Nutrient Supplementation in Dryland Agriculture. Fertiliser News 39(4): 27-32. K. R. Rao, L. C. Mushan, A. C. Mulani , . R. S. Khatavkar, G. Y. Parlekar, N. V. Shah., 2010. Effect of vermicompost on the growth and yield of onion (Allium cepa); Karnataka J. Agric. Sci., 23 (2): (361-363). Kumar Ashok and Shiva dhar. 2010. Evaluation of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients in maize (Zea mays) and their residual effect on wheat (Triticum aestivum) under different fertility levels, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 80 (5): 364–71, May 2010. Sulochana M.B. and Prashanth Gadgi (2010) Effect of rhizobium seed inoculation and nitrogen fertilizer on the growth of green gram, bengal gram and groundnut crops; Pharmatutor-art-1219. Wani, S.P. and Lee, K.K. 1995. Microorganisms as biological inputs for sustainable agriculture in Organic Agriculture (Thampan, P.K.ed.) Peekay Tree Crops Development Foundation, Cochin, India. Pp-39-76. Wani, S.P. and Lee K.K. 2002. Population dynamics of nitrogen fixing bacteria associated with pearl millet (P. americanum L.). In biotechnology of nitrogen fixation in the tropics. University of Pertanian, Malaysia, 21-30. Zublena et al. (1997), Poultry Manure as a Fertilizer Source, Publication AG-439-5; North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service

IJOART

Documents

Use of Bio-fertilizers and Organic Inputs - as LISA ... · PDF fileUse of Bio-fertilizers and Organic Inputs - as LISA technology by farmers of Sangamner . Prajakta patil. 1, Pradnya