ifoam'96 Book of Abstracts 11th IFOAM Scientific Conference 11-15 August 1996, Copenhagen, Denmark

ECOWEB FRONT PAGE SUBJECT INDEX AUTHOR INDEX

Workshop

Substitution of Chemical Fertilizers with EM-Technology.W21

1) Nature Farming Research Centre, 2) Department of Soil Science, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad- 38040, Pakistan.

In Pakistan, majority of the farmers are poor with small land holdings and have a subsistence farming. They were not benefitted from green revolution technology because of no access to the costly agro-chemicals. Therefore, EM-Technology which is an added dimension to organic/nature farming was used as an alternative. EM-Technology makes use of culture solution containing co-existing effective microorganisms introduced by Dr. T. Higa of Japan. Its prime objective is to provide cheap inputs by utilizing available farm manures, crop residues, industrial waste as a biofertilizer and drastically reduce dependence on synthetic agro-chemicals.
In Pakistan, six years experiments have shown very promising results. In rice-wheat rotation, EM caused 18 and 24% increase in paddy and wheat yield respectively over control and under wheat-cotton rotation, EM gave 39 and 18% increase in wheat grain and seed cotton yield respectively over control. Farmers field demonstrations on rice crop comparing EM-biokasht (biofertilizer) with chemical fertilizers at nine sites showed similar yield with both the treatments. Peas yield with EM + FYM approached to that with NPK fertilizers. In radish-spinach rotation, yield, were comparable between EM + Poultry manure and the chemical fertilizers. Citrus fruit showed increased total soluble sugars. juice contents and average weight of the fruit over control treatment by EM application, The results of two experiments in which EM was given to the broiler chicks in drinking water with different dilutions showed that EM increased the weight of the chicks i.e. 25% (Trial A) and 16.2% (Trail B) over control. Latest experiments with EM have shown very encouraging results for gardens, bamboo. forestry, fish, and diary animals as well. It is concluded that, EM-Technology which is safe, economical and effective in its application to the entire agroecosystem will revolutimize agriculture of Pakistan.