Chemical and microbiological characterization of organic supplements and compost used in agriculture

Author: Shubham Singh, Amar Bahadur Singh, Asit Mandal, Jyoti Kumar Thakur, Abinash Das, Poonam Singh Rajput, Girijesh Kumar Sharma

Category: Research Article

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Abstract:

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture enhances crop production but it may pose a risk to food quality and soil environment. One alternative to agrochemicals is the natural make organic supplements to supply essential nutrients for crop growth and promote healthy soil function. Therefore, an experimental study was performed to analyze the chemical and microbiological properties of locally produced supplements based on cow dung, such as vermicompost, farmyard manure, Beejamrit, Jeevamrit, and Ghanjeevarmrit. The Jeevamrit and farmyard manure had the lowest pH (4.93) and electrical conductivity (1.73 dS m^-1), whereas Ghanjeevamrit and Jeevamrit observed highest values (7.80 and 3.62 dS m^-1). Vermicompost had the highest concentrations of total N (1.76%), P (0.77%), K (0.81 %), Fe (398 mg kg^-1), Mn (65.9 mg kg^-1), Cu (15.5 mg kg^-1), and Zn (18.2 mg kg^-1). Under Ghanjeevamrit, 35.9 % of the total carbon was found, followed by farmyard manure (34.5 %) and vermicompost (24.1%). The counts of soil heterotrophic bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and beneficial microbial diversity such as P solubilizer, and nitrogen (N) fixer were found highest in vermicompost. However, in Jeevamrit there was no growth of actinomycetes and N-fixing bacteria whereas, in Beejamrit preparation except actinomycetes all other microbial growth was visible. Organic supplements such as farmyard manure had the lowest indole acetic acid production (1.66 __ampersandsignmu;g ml^-1), while Ghanjeevamrit showed the highest (6.38 __ampersandsignmu;g ml^-1). The liquid formulation (Beejamrit and Jeevamrit) indicated more levels of indole acetic acid than the farmyard manure (2.18 and 1.87 times more, respectively). The application of organic supplements had a great role in supplying available nutrients and modulating microbial diversity and plant growth hormone production.

Keywords: beejamrit, farmyard manure, ghanjeevamrit, vermicompost