Study

The evaluation of microbial diversity in a vegetable based cropping system under organic farming practices

  • Published source details Srivastava R., Roseti D. & Sharma a.K. (2007) The evaluation of microbial diversity in a vegetable based cropping system under organic farming practices. Applied Soil Ecology, 36, 116-123.

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

Action Category

Amend the soil with bacteria or fungi

Action Link
Soil Fertility
  1. Amend the soil with bacteria or fungi

    A controlled, randomized, replicated experiment in 2002-2004 on sandy-loam soil in Udham Singh Nagar, India (Srivastava et al. 2007) found that adding soil bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (see background section) increased soil microbial diversity (2.5 x 103 colonies/g soil), compared to the control (1.9 x 103 colonies/g soil). Crop yields in okra Hibiscus esculentus, pea Pisum sativa and cowpea Vigna unguiculata increased when bacteria (33, 25 and 8 kg/ha, respectively) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (40, 28 and 11 kg/ha) were added, compared to the control (22, 21, and 4 kg/ha).  Three crops were grown in rotation: okra, pea and cowpea. Each plot was 16 m2. AMF Glomus intraradices and a bacterium species Pseudomonas fluorescens were added to the soil as treatments. Only crop residues were added during the experiment. There were three replicates. Soil samples were taken and soil microbe numbers were measured. The effect of rotation was not reported.

     

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