Effect of Chlorpyrifos on Soil Microbial Health

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to record the effect of different concentrations of chlorpyrifos (50, 100, 150, 200, 500 and 1000 ppm) on total viable bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes count in soil. Interaction of treatment and sampling days recorded maximum viable bacterial count (20.93 CFU/g), fungal count (13.30 CFU/g) and actinomycetes count (20.60 CFU/g) at 50 ppm treated chlorpyrifos soil on 10th day (for bacteria) and 5th day (for fungi and actinomycetes) of incubation which was significantly higher than all other treatments and sampling days. Further microbial count decreased with increase in chlorpyrifos concentration and sampling days. Minimum viable count of bacteria (2.02 CFU/g), fungi (1.37 CFU/g) and actinomycetes (1.52 CFU/g) recorded at 1000 ppm was significantly lower. So it was concluded that with increase in concentration of chlorpyrifos (50 to 1000 ppm), there was decrease in soil microbial count.