Beneficial microbes “Jeevatu” for biodegradable waste management and plant disease control

Abstract

Jeevatu is the mixed culture of beneficial microbes, found in natural conditions in Nepal, which is developed by the Nepalese Farming Institute (NFI), an NGO working in Kathmandu, Nepal. Worldwide, several works have been done to control plant diseases, especially nematodes of tomatoes and rhizome rot of ginger effectively, however; no single chemical and practice was found effective to control them. The literature review and experiments revealed that, it is considered almost impossible to control root knot nematode and rhizome rot properly by any means in developing countries. There has been a challenge to find out the best alternative to control root knot nematode and rhizome rot in a sustainable, eco-friendly and a cost effective ways. The use of Jeevatu based organic liquid manure has managed root-knot nematode of tomatoes and rhizome rot of ginger, along with plant growth and development. Jeevatu based organic liquid manure has been found that increases soil organic matter, thus sequestering carbon dioxide, mitigating the adverse effect of global warming. Likewise, the biodegradable waste emits foul odor during collection, loading, transportation and composting. The result of several experiments shows that the application of 0.75 % Jeevatu on wastewater completely controlled the foul odor and 15 % Jeevatu on unsegregated waste completely stopped the foul odor whose D/T value was found 0 (P=0000) 15 minutes later in both of the cases. Moreover, spraying 5 % Jeevatu solution on biodegradable segregated solid waste produced high quality compost within 2 months. Similarly, only 50 % Jeevatu solution of the total biomass of rotten fish has been found effective to control the foul odor of rotten fish. By analyzing several experiment results and literature review, Jeevatu has been found to be one of the best bio-agents for sustainable agriculture, plant disease control, value added compost production, and city waste management.