Impact of eco-friendly organic formulations and inorganic fertilizations on enzymatic activity and microbial population in soils grown under tomato

Abstract

Organic agriculture is increasingly used as an alternative to conventional agriculture due to its positive impact on the health of ecosystems and agroecosystems. However, the outcome of organic agriculture in terms of the production of various crops remains uncertain due to the influence of many variables, rising questions about its advantages over conventional agriculture. So that the field experiments were planned and conducted during kharif 2017-18 and 2018-19 to evaluate the “Impact of eco-friendly organic formulations and inorganic fertilizations on enzymatic activity and microbial population in soils grown under tomato”. The field experiments were conducted at the research farm, College of Agriculture, Golegaon, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani. The experiments were laid out in randomized block design with three replications. There were twelve treatments comprising of organic formulations and inorganic fertilizers. The soil samples were collected before sowing, at the time of flowering and at the time of harvesting of crop for calculating the microbial count and enzymatic activity of the soil. From the results obtained it is indicated that among the different treatment combinations, application of RDF + Beejamruth + Jeevamruth + Panchagavya recorded the highest fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria count as well as dehydrogenase, urease and acid phosphatase content in the flowering as well as post harvest status of the soil.