Organic and natural farming improve microbial diversity and dehydrogenase activity in clusterbean-tomato cropping sequence

ABSTRACTOrganic (OF) and natural farming (NF) may help to overcome drawbacks of chemical farming. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the microbial diversity and dehydrogenase activity in clusterbean-tomato cropping sequence with different farming systems over 3 years. An increase in bacterial population in OF (73.6%) and NF (55.4%) over conventional farming practice (PoP) and 90.8% (OF) and 62.1% (NF) over farmers’ practice (FP) was recorded. Fungal population in OF and NF increased by 32.8% and 12%, respectively over PoP and 76.8% (OF) and 47% (NF) over FP. Increase in actinomycetes population of 34% (OF) and 18.1% (NF) over PoP and 60.9% (OF) and 41.8% (NF) over FP was observed. Phosphate solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) population increased to 62.8% (OF) and 33.4% (NF) over PoP and 103.1% (OF) and 66.4% (NF) over FP. Population of N-Fixers also found enhanced in OF (31.4%) and NF (9.7%) compared to PoP and FP (OF: 97.4% and NF: 58%). The higher dehydrogenase activity of 41.4% (OF) and 25.5% (NF) was recorded over PoP and OF (62%) and NF (43.8%) over FP. It can be concluded that OF and NF enhanced microbial diversities and dehydrogenase activity.KEYWORDS: Actinomycetesnitrogen fixersPSMchemical farmingrhizosphere AcknowledgmentsAuthors acknowledge the Natural Farming Project funded by Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, India.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the Natural Farming Project funded by Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, India. Natural Farming Project funded by Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka, India .