By Ebele Orakpo

Professor Frank Chukwunwike Ogbo of the Department of Applied Microbiology and Brewing is a professor of microbiology and Chairman, University/Industry Research Committee of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State. He spoke to Vanguard Learning in his office on the recently held exhibition of research works, inventions and ideas at the university. He also spoke on one of his research works on more environment-friendly fertilizer.

The exhibition:

*Professor Frank Ogbo…The little sachet of biofertiliser below can fertilise a plot of farmland while it will need a big bag of chemical fertiliser to achieve same.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Ahaneku, set up the committee to provide a platform by which researches done in the university can impact the society, particularly communities around us. The university does research and teaching but a lot of the research is lost on book shelves and libraries and society does not benefit from it.

Ahaneku realises that this is a university’s major duty to surrounding communities so he set up this committee very early in his administration and the committee is comprised of a chairman, deputy chairman and members from all the 14 faculties of the university.

We first visited all the faculties of the university to sensitise people and to collect data on research which had been done already and to catalogue and classify them, selecting those that are relevant to society. After we had done that, we felt that one way to show these researches to the society and to Nigerians was to organise an exhibition which held as part of the VC’s one year anniversary celebration.

That was meant to give it a wider audience. We invited investors, members of the university community and also the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), to sensitise the university about intellectual property, patenting etc. Research should be directed at solving problems, not just for academic purposes or for fun.

Some businessmen, captains of industry and government officials have expressed interest in some of the products. Some left us with some problems they would want us to research into. We are putting all these things together and we are going to follow up on those that have expressed interest on our products and also the ones that want research, and get appropriate units of the university to look into those problems and help them find solutions to them.

Microbial biofertilisers Chemical vs biofertilisers

The application of microbiology is mostly in industry. They happen at a scale that is very high. Microbiologists are involved in industries, they produce enzymes, manage brewing, etc. At a time, I started thinking that we need something that will have a more local application, something that will benefit people in the rural areas.

I started a research on microbial biofertilisers which are fertilisers that use microorganisms instead of chemicals. Normally, a chemical fertiliser will contain minerals like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. When you add that to the soil, the plant takes it up and grows with it.

But there are so many problems with chemical fertilisers, the issue of environmental damage, leaching into water bodies and contaminating them. Some of the chemical fertiliser itself, gets demobilised and form insoluble salts and become unavailable to plants.

Now, chemical fertilisers are almost exclusively imported into Nigeria. There is a fertiliser plant in Port Harcourt but they do blending so it is expensive. On the other hand, a microbial biofertiliser is cheaper, you can make it anywhere, even in your office and people can set up small plants to manufacture it.

How it works:

You inoculate some microorganisms into the seeds to be planted. When the seeds germinate, these beneficial microorganisms we are working with, will infect the plant and render at least three services – one, it will fix nitrogen, in other words, it produces one of the major components of chemical fertilisers.

It will solubilise phosphates. ie, make insoluble phosphates in the soil soluble so the plant can now take it up. It also protects against diseases  particularly from fungi.

Environment-friendly & cheap:

We now have bacterial biofertiliser which provides a combination of three services within the normal ecosystem and environmental conditions of the soil. So there is no left over, no contamination. Because you can produce them on very cheap waste materials,    they are also very cheap.

We have done a few trials. From the trials, we observed that the plants inoculated with the biofertiliser have much more roots, a lot stronger with improved root length, grew more vigorously, more competitive and able to utilise the nutrients in the soil a lot better than the uninoculated ones because of the activities of the microorganisms.

Cereals & microbes:

There is a particular interest in this. Cereals are the major crops grown in many parts of Nigeria. We also have tubers and legumes. Legumes have this peculiar advantage of having a symbiotic relationship with organisms that fix nitrogen but cereals do not have that advantage. That is the other aspect of the beauty of this work.

The relationship between these plants and organisms is what is described as an associative symbiosis. It is not deep-seated, the organisms live somewhere on the surface of the root so we are trying to conclude this work.

How to use the biofertiliser:

Mix the soil with the microorganisms in water. You then put in your seeds, the seeds pick up some of the biofertiliser/microorganisms. You plant the seeds. It is quite simple.

Cost:

It will be cheaper than the chemical fertiliser because this is just soil and microorganisms. Microorganisms are cheap and they can be grown very easily and cheaply. There is no bulk. This size of biofertiliser can fertilise a plot of farmland which will need may be one big bag of chemical fertiliser because if you look at the quantity consumed by the seed, it is very small compared to the chemical fertiliser where you have to put in    cup full and all that.