Microbial Conversion of Kitchen Waste for the Production of Bio-Organic Fertilizer and its Bio Efficacy on Crops

Abstract

Bio-organic fertilizers are produced by microorganisms through the conversion of complex organic material into simple compounds ultimately help the plants to grow by increasing the number of available nutrients. An abundant   of kitchen waste is produced from the current modern society in Ethiopia and its clearance poses severe environmental and social problems in the country. In this regard, a study was conducted during the 2018-19 at phytoremediation experimental block of the Department of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We isolated Kocuria rosea strain C9 from alfa alfa root nodules and were used to identify its potential for microbial conversion of kitchen waste. Azolla, cow dung, and kitchen waste were used as carrier materials. The physiochemical properties (pH, Moisture Content, Total Organic Carbon, C;N ratio, Total Nitrogen, and Temperature) were studied for attaining high microbial degradation for mass production of bio-organic fertilizer. Effectiveness of the bio-organic fertilizer were studied on the three  plant species, namely Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), Field pea (Pisum sativum ) and Lettuce (Lactuca sativa ) in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with thrice replicated with the following three treatments; T1 (Bio-organic fertilizer); T2 organic fertilizer (without bio-organic fertilizer as positive control) and T3 as  the negative control (only the soil) The bio organic fertilizer formulated in the present study were applied on selected crops, upon screening the shoot length, plant dry weight, pods number, spikelet per plant, were measured. The majority of treatments significantly increased the yield related attributes and crops agronomic performance. The results obtained in this research indicated that this bio-organic formulation is promising and could be used as dual purpose strain, for mobilizing the soil nutrients and for achieving a safer and cleaner environment. Therefore, the current study endorses the use of recycled  kitchen waste as a carrier material for the production of bio-organic fertilizer with KocurIa rosea strain C9.