This study focused on screening, identifying and characterizing P-solubilizing rhizobacteria associated with Coffea arabica L. growing in Southwestern Ethiopia. Samples were collected from Kaffa and Jimma zones in the Southwestern part of Ethiopia which are not only the major coffee growing areas of Ethiopia but also the origin of Coffea arabica L. Natural forest, agroforestry-based and monoculture plantations were included. A total of 110 Coffee roots with adhering soil samples were collected in sterile plastic bags. At each sampling site, plant roots with adhering soil (approximately 50 g) were collected from each corner of a randomly selected square meter (One from each of 4 quadrants) which lied around coffee plant at a depth of 10-20 cm and placed into a sterile plastic bag to give a composite sample. One composite sample was taken at each coffee plant. Care was taken to keep rhizosphere soil intact around the root. The shade trees at each sampling site were also registered. A total of 169 bacteria were isolated on nutrient agar from root washing solutions (61 isolates), surface sterilized roots (45 isolates) and soil (63 isolates). These bacteria isolates were subjected to GEN III Micro-plate tests of Biolog bacterial identification system kits and evaluated for their ability to solubilize phosphates on Pikovskaya's agar plates. Members of the isolated rhizobacteria were dominated by the genus Pseudomonas (44.1%) followed by Bacillus (11.6%), Enterobacter (10.5%) and Stenotrophomonas (10.5%). Over 32.5% of the Rhizobacteria (both Gram-negative and Gram-positive) associated with the coffee rhizosphere could solubilize mineral P on Pikovskaya's agar, indicating a high proportion of such species is associated with coffee plants.

Culture based diversity of Rhizobacteria associated with Sorghum wild relatives were identified by this study.Rhizobacteria, which include rhizosphere bacteria, rhizoplane bacteria and endophytic bacteria were isolated and identified. The isolates were also evaluated and screened for their ability to solubilize phosphates on Pikovskaya's agar plates. One hundred twenty-six rhizobacteria were isolated on nutrient agar from the samples. Out of these Rhizobacterial isolates, 21 of them were endophyte bacteria, 40 of them were rhizosphere bacteria and 65 of them were rhizoplane bacteria. The 126 isolated rhizobacteria were clustered into 36 similar representative Morphotype groups. And, they were identified using GEN III Biolog microbial identification system. Gram negative rhizobacteria were more predominant than Gram positive rhizobacteria. Genus Pseudomonas was found as the most dominant Rhizobacterial taxa among the identified P-solubilizing Rhizobacteria and Non-P-solubilizing Rhizobacteria isolates. Forty seven percent (47.2%) of the clustered rhizobacterial isolates showed clearly visible haloes (>0.50 cm) around their colonies on Pikovskaya's agar after seven days of incubation at 30 ± 2°C. They showed a significant difference of solubilization index (SI) [p<0.05] and ranged from 1.3 to 5.3 with a mean value of 2.4. Gram positive bacteria (Bacillus cibi) produced the largest solubilisation index when compared with the Gram-negative isolates. This study indicated that P-solubilizing rhizobacteria associated with Sorghum Wild Relative have very large phosphate solubilization index. Thus, it is recommended to include them in research programs that intend to screen P-solubilizing bacteria for microbial inoculant development.

This study aimed to assess the traditional practice of farmers in legume-cereal cropping systems in North Shoa, Ethiopia and their understanding about the role of microbes.A total of 103 farmer-informants were selected using simple random sampling technique from the study area. A pre-tested and adjusted semi-structured interview questionnaire was designed and administered to explore farmers' soil classification techniques, farmers' indigenous and inherent techniques of soil fertility assessment, cropping systems and their knowhow about microbes associated with legume nodules and their effects in the improvement of soil fertility and growth of crops. Descriptive frequency statistics was used to evaluate all the variables using SPSS (2011) software ver.20.The most three common traditional farming practices identified by this study are; crop rotation, sequential cropping, and strip cropping, respectively. The most common types of crops they combine during crop rotation are barley, bean, wheat, pea and linseed. This study also found out that most farmers living in the study area are aware of the role of legumes in soil improvement but they do not have the scientific background about the role of microbes associated with legume root nodules in the enhancement of soil fertility.

The study was carried out with the aim to isolate Staphylococcus aureus from camel and goat raw milk and determine their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. 204 raw milk samples were collected from randomly selected lactating camels (n=62) and lactating goats (n=142) in live-stock producing pastoralists' areas of Somali region for isolation and identification of S. aureus. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed on all S. aureus isolates to 16 antibiotics by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Twenty three (11.27% of the total) S. aureus strains were isolated. Four (6.45%) strains were isolated from camel raw milk samples and 19 (13.34%) from goat raw milk samples. S. aureus isolates showed resistance to Nalidixic acid, Polymixin B, and Penicillin G. S. aureus isolates were sensitive to vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, cefoxitin, cephalotin, gentamycin, Doxycycline, kanamycin, trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole, chloramphenicol, norfloxacin, and erythromycin. Multi drug resistance was detected in 69.2% of the isolates. The present study has demonstrated the existence of alarmingly high level of multiple antimicrobial resistances of S. aureus among camel and goat milks.