The Effect of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Gliocladium Fungi on the Yield of Small Green Pepper (Capsicum annuum) Grown by Sustainable Agriculture

Worldwide indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals boosts agricultural productivity since the green revolution of 1960s, with the cost of the environment and society. It kills the valuable soil microorganisms and destroys their natural fertility, and reduces the power of biological resistance in crops to make them more susceptible to pests and diseases. To solve the problem, sustainable agriculture is encouraged and some promising agricultural approaches are reported.

In this study, the authors aimed to present new perspectives and strategies for efficient and effective use of natural resources (wood and bamboo wastes, weeds, and fungi) to enhance sustainable systems of agriculture. A next generation agriculture by using wood and bamboo wastes with the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and gliocladium fungi (GF) was investigated to establish high productivity of small green pepper (SGP, Capsicum annuum). Wood and bamboo wastes as carbon sources, cut weeds as organic sources, and a minor amount of AMF, and GF were applied separately and conjointly in the four experimental plots to evaluate the effects of wood and bamboo wastes (high C:N ratio), weeds, and fungi on the production of SGP. And the experimental design was laid out in a completely randomized design with 3 treatments namely, T₁—wood wastes + bamboo wastes + cut weeds (meadow grass, couch grass, horsetail, nettle, chickweed, ground elder, etc.) + AMF (Idemitsu) + GF (Idemitsu); T₂—wood wastes + bamboo wastes + cut weeds; T₃— AMF + GF; C—control.

The findings demonstrated that there was statistically significant difference between treatments (T₁ and T₂) and control and the combination of carbon, organic, and fungal sources at T₁ (wood wastes + bamboo wastes + cut weeds + AMF + GF) obtained high productivity of SGP. The yield was 400 times higher than control (untreated). Another notable significant result was that all the treatments contained a very small amount of nitrate compared to conventional practice.

This study suggests that combination of carbon (wood, and bamboo wastes), organic (cut weeds), and fungal sources (AMF, and GF) has a potential to be innovative agricultural materials for the next generation sustainable agriculture.

Article by Mohammed Zahidul Islam and Sadanobu Katoh, from Shimane University, Matsue, Japan.

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Image by Yeoh Yi Shuen, from Flickr-cc.