Contributions of Effective Microorganisms and Organic Materials on Microbial Activities

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the screen house of the Teaching and Research Farm of Rivers State University (RSU)from March to July, 2018 to determine the effects of Effective Microorganisms Activated Solution (EMAS) and organic materials (poultry manure (PM) and dry grasses (DG)) on microbial population and activities. The six treatments made up of 2 levels of EMAS and 3 levels of organic materials were replicated three times and arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The treated soils were incubated for 4 weeks and samples collected for microbial count and carbon dioxide evolution. Microbial activities were monitored weekly for 4 weeks. The results show a significant difference (p<0.05) between soil+ effective microorganisms activated solution (SO+EMAS), soil + poultry manure + effective microorganism activated solution(S+PM+EMAS), soil + dry grasses + effective microorganism activated solution (S+DG+EMAS), soil + poultry manure (S+PM), soil + dry grasses (S+DG) and the control soil only (SO). The population of heterotrophic bacterial were significantly different, S+EMAS had the highest (9.82x109CFU/g) and the control (SO) had the least population (1.38x109CFU/g) before planting, SO had the highest population count (4.63x108 CFU/g) and S+DG had the least population count of bacteria (4.10x107CFU/g) after harvest, also a significant different exist among the treatments on CO2 evolution, S+PM had the highest mean value (0.06mg), S+EMAS had the least value (0.002mg). The results show that soils amended with EMAS improved bacterial count, lowers CO2 evolution, soils amended with PM improved CO2 evolution. Hence recommending that EMAS and organic matter (especially PM) should be used for the improvement of soil microbial population to enhance nutrient availabilities for plants and to create a sustainable agriculture.