‘Rhizobium will cut costs on bio-fertilisers’

WITH the 2022/2023 farming season just getting underway, the Government has challenged farmers producing leguminous crops to embrace the use of Rhizobium to cut down on costs of buying Ammonium Nitrate and Urea.

The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development produces the Rhizobium fertilisers at a factory in Marondera

“A 100-gramme sachet of the Rhizobium inoculants is enough to treat 100kg of soya bean seed for a hectare at a cost of US$5 per sachet compared to US$250 that would be required for the same hectarage for additional fertilisers,” head of the Chemistry and Soil Research Institute Mr Emmanuel Chikwari said.

The factory, which belongs to the Chemistry and Soil Research Institute under the Department of Research and Specialist Services produces the bio-fertilisers for grain legumes such as soya beans, sugar beans, groundnuts, cowpeas and peas.

Mr Chikwari added: “We have identified the various effective Rhizobia strains specific for each legume in the soil and cultured them into Rhizobium inoculants.”

With the country targeting to resuscitate fodder production in the livestock sub-space, the bio-fertiliser can also be used for pasture feeds such as Lucerne, lablab, sunnhemp and velvet beans.

In the light of the global supply chain disruptions stemming from the conflict in Eastern Europe and the resultant impacts on fertiliser supplies worldwide, Rhizobium represents a cheap and viable option for farmers to mitigate supply shortages.

Rhizobia is a beneficial bacterium that fixes nitrogen in the air through a symbiotic relationship with host plants.

“Nitrogen is fixed right into the plant root system to sufficient levels, which means there will be no nitrogen losses compared to using additional mineral fertilisers,” observed Mr Chikwari.

The department of Chemistry and Soil Research in partnership with Agritex have established distribution centres across the country, taking advantage of the wide presence of Agritex offices in the provinces where farmers can also receive training on the use of the Rhizobium.

“We have also engaged distribution centres such as Farm and City, Windmill, Seed Co and various other agro-dealers,” said Mr Chikwari.