Effective Microorganisms and Ecological Agriculture S12
Institute of Soil Science, Academia Sinica, Nanjing 210008, China
|China is a country with a long history in
applying organic manure. Based on statistics of 1987, the total amount of root stubble
entering the soil for the whole country amounted to 128 Mt, which formed as much as 40% of
the total newly-formed soil organic matter during the year.
The results show that the recycling and recycling of organic nutrients can not only promote agricultural production and enhance agricultural development, but can also prevent soil environmental pollution caused by applying chemical fertilizer only. It should be pointed out that organic agriculture is actually an important component of ecological agriculture. With its goals of having to control population increase, utilize resources rationally and conserve a good-state ecological environment, China has done and is trying its best to establish ecological agriculture, which includes the implementation of a comprehensive management of forestry, animal husbandry, side-line production and fishery the development of mountain agriculture and three dimensional agriculture in mountainous regions, implementation of ecological animal husbandry and combined faring and grazing in grassy hill and grassland, establishment of aquatic agriculture. In particular it is worthy to mention the cooperative study conducted by China and the Japan Natural Farming Centre on effective microorganisms (EM) techniques in recent years. Primary results showed that EM efficiency varies with soil conditions and crops. It works well in soils with high SOM content when applied in high concentration. Generally, it is able to raise vegetable yields by 15%, gain crops by 10%.
When used as fodder additives for poultry and animals, it can improve immunity. For chickens, death rate can be lowered by 55.8% while weight being increased by 2.8-10%, and the rate of feed to meat as well as foul smell decreased by 10% and 41.7-69.7%, respectively.
When applied in combination with organic materials, it can lower (or even avoid) the application of fertilizer and pesticide. The amount of fertilizer can be reduced by 50-66%, which benefits green food production and environment protection.
Therefore, EM biotechniques have a wide application perspective. However, further studies on EM application conditions and mechanisms should be demonstrated while demonstrating and extending EM techniques so that its role in enhancing the sustainable development of farming, forestry, animal husbandry, side-line production and fishery as well as in protecting ecological environment could be completely played.