Muscat: The College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University discovered more than 1,100 new species of fungi and bacteria in 2015.
Abdullah Al Saadi, an associate professor at the Faculty of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, said that most of these fungi and bacteria are not harmful to plants, adding that many of them are actually beneficial to the plants through their resistance to some diseases in the soil or motivate resistance in plants against many diseases.
Al Saadi added that studies have shown that many of these micro-species are linked to palm trees and lemons, where they work as the first line of defence against diseases.
Al Saadi explained that excessive use of pesticides in some farms has adversely affected biodiversity and gradually eliminated these micro-organisms, making the crop susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases.
“The newly-discovered species of fungi and bacteria are found in farms that use organic fertilisers instead of chemicals ones,” said Al Saadi.
Most of these species are found in South and North Batinah, Muscat and Musandam governorates.
As part of future plans, Al Saadi pointed out that they were coordination with the Oman Centre for Plant and Animal Genetic Resources and Scientific Research Council to provide funding to preserve some types of fungi.
More intensive research will soon be conducted into combatting diseases that infect plants, in order to minimise the use of chemical pesticides, Al Saadi said.
More than 500,000 palm trees died in 2014 due to disease and environmental issues in Oman.
To combat the shortage of the date palms, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has distributed more than 400,000 date palm saplings to farmers nationwide.
Oman has more than seven million date palm trees, according to the data released by the ministry.
