Challenges of Soil Health Management by Small-Holder Farmers in Western Kenya: The Enhanced Microbial Inoculant (EMI) context in Composting

Abstract

Most Kenyan peasant farmers, especially those in the project area do not use any soil fertility intervention measures, resulting in soils that are tired, with yields that cannot sustain their food and income security. One of the farmer friendly interventions that needed attention is composting, and it is now known from the available literature that the composting cycle can be reduced from the current 6 months to a much shorter time. What makes this possible is manipulation of soil inhabiting microorganisms to make inoculants that can be used to reduce compost maturity time. The project consequently sought to isolate, characterize and develop an Enhanced Microbial Inoculant (EMI) that would produce compost at reduced maturity time. The experiment involved isolation and identification of various soil inhabiting microbes that would be put together to form the Enhanced Microbial Inoculants (EMI). The isolates were analyzed genotypically and identified using molecular methods. PCR targeting 16S rDNA was used, and allowed identification of prokaryotes as well as predicting their phylogenetic relationships. Full length 16S rRNA sequences with more than 97% were considered to be from the same organism. Identification of organisms based on 16S rRNA was collaborated with genetic and phenotypic evidence. The resultant EMI was found to reduce composting maturity time to less than 70 days which is consistent with other researchers’ findings.