Abstract
Applications of biofertilizer have great practical importance for increasing fertility of the soil and reducing environmental pollution. Screening and characterizing phosphate solubilizing Bacillus (PSB) strains from different agroecologies of Tigray soil and in vitro assessment for the adaptability under different abiotic stress would help in selecting the most efficient strain for use as biofertilizer. A total of 64 soil samples were collected from different agro-ecological zones of Tigray and checked for the presence, capability and efficiency of PSB. Out of 64 soil samples 21 of them were phosphate solubilizing. These phosphate solubilizing strains again incubate at 37˚C for 48h on pikovskaya medium to see efficacy of phosphate solubilization. Highest efficiency was recorded in MUB28, MUB47and MUB64 isolates and also tolerant to acidity and alkaline up to pH4 and pH8, respectively. And difference was recorded in saline tolerance among the strains: MUB47 is the most saline tolerance strain which tolerate saline up to 513mM of sodium chloride (NaCl) but MUB28 and MUB64 have tolerated saline up to 340mM of NaCl. The identification of efficient PSB candidate strains with salt & pH tolerant features in the soil sample could have an implication on the end-users to obtain the desired beneficial effect such as maintaining soil healthy, provision of adequate phosphorus from soil to the plant and improving crop yield of Tigray Agriculture. Based on the morphological, microscopic, biochemical and physiological characterization, it may be inferred that the diversity among these efficient PSB strains is low. Keywords : Biofertilizer, Phosphate solubilizing Bacillus, Efficiency, Diversity, Agroecology, Adaptability, Ethiopia.
Highlights
The demand for increasing productivity necessitates provision of adequate nutrients from the soil
It is necessary to characterize its efficiency in terms of phosphate solubilizing ability before PSBis used as biofertilizer
Out of 64 soil samples 33% of them were phosphate solubilizing this indicates that phosphate solubilizing Bacillus (PSB) is common in Tigray soil
Summary
The demand for increasing productivity necessitates provision of adequate nutrients from the soil. Most agricultural soils of tropics, including Ethiopia are deficient in sufficient phosphorus, besides nitrogen. It is reported that the two nutrients often limit crop production in Ethiopia (Dibabe, 2000). The most northern region of Ethiopia is generally regarded as the most degraded part of the country. This is manifested in the form of soil erosion, deforestation, declining bio-diversity resources, and soil moisture stress (Taffere, 2003). The leading economic sector of the region is agriculture over 85% of the populations are farmers who depends on the high input demanding
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