Integrated soil fertility management was promoted on-farm during the 2018/2019 cropping season in Thyolo, Phalombe, Mulanje and Zomba districts of southern Malawi, in purposively selected extension planning areas (EPAs). Sixty farmers, fifteen from each district were involved. Trials were established in farmers’ fields with smallholder farms as replicates and extension EPAs as blocks. The following were the treatments; Maize + 92 kg N ha-1 + 46 kg of P ha-1; Maize + 3 tons of compost manure ha-1; and Maize + 46 kg N ha-1 + 23 kg P ha-1 + 1.5 tons of compost manure. Grain yield data were collected at harvest. The data were analyzed in Genstat Discovery Edition 4 and were subjected to ANOVA at 95% level of confidence. Means were separated by the least significant difference (LSD0.05). No significant differences (>0.05) in Maize grain yields were observed between the treatment with Maize + 46 kg N ha-1 + 23 kg P ha-1 + 1.5 tons of compost manure and the treatment with Maize + 92 kg N ha-1 + 46 kg of P ha-1 in all the districts. Maize grain yields were significantly lower in plots treated with the full rate of manure (3 tons of compost manure ha-1) in Thyolo, Mulanje and Zomba district. Higher maize grain yields were registered in Phalombe (3,867-4,838 kg ha-1), followed by Thyolo (1,764-2,374 kg ha-1) and Zomba (740-1,120 kg ha-1). The trials confirmed that applying a combination of organic and inorganic fertilizer to maize, increase grain yields.
Pesticide xenobiotics have a great impact on bio argumentation, bio-magnification, and environment degradation regardless of being adopted by green revolution technologies. Bioremediation is widely accepted because it’s cheap, practical at the same time environmentally friendly. Bioremediation advocates indigenous microbes use to degrade pesticides, therefore a study has been performed to show prospects of degrading microorganisms. The study isolated microbes from different agro ecological zones to assess their capacity to utilize some pesticide as sole carbon source complimented by the presence of laccase gene. Biochemical test and genetic characterization using 16S rDNA genes were used in identification. Diversified species and strains of genus Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Pantoea and Leclercia, were found to degrade cypermethrin and acetochlor but no microbe was found to degrade dimethoate. The study adds new strain of microbes involved in degradation of cypermethrin and acetochlor and also strains that that can degrade both. The study puts proposition that pest infestation in fields is a result of abundance of xenobiotic degrading microbes due to natural selection pressure not pesticide resistance of the pest.
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