Efforts to increase rice productivity in Indonesia are still constrained by attacks of plant pest organisms which cause low crop productivity. Diseases that often attack rice plantations include blast and leaf blight disease. Blast is caused by a fungus Magnaporthe grisea Cav. While leaf blight is caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae (Xoo). There are isolates of bacterial that have ability to provide resistance to disease attacks on plants, one of which is Paenybacillus polymixa. Based on this study, the aim of this study was to determine the ability of P. polymixa isolates in controlling the attack of Xanthomonas and fungi Magnaporthe grisea in vitro. The research stage is a test of bacterial inhibition of Xoo and M. grisea. The inhibition zone index in the antagonist test for Xoo pathogens in MO Plus was higher than P. polymixa. MO Plus inhibition zone index 1.87 while P. polymixa is only 1.20 at 7 days after incubation. P. polymixa bacteria have the highest index in inhibiting P. oryzae, which is 57.02. While the MO Plus inhibition index is 21.12.

Terbatasnya varietas padi tahan kering merupakan salah satu masalah dalam budadaya padi di lahan  kering. Genotype mutan tahan kering dari hasil iradiasi sinar gamma sebagai padi gogo penampilannya dapat diuji pada lahan sawah tanpa genangan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menilai penampilan agronomi beberapa genotype mutan sebagai padi gogo di lahan sawah pada musim tanam kering. Penelitian dilasaksanakan di  Kelurahan Turikale, Kecamatan Turikale,  Kabupaten Maros, Sulawesi Selatan, berlangsung dari  bulan Juli - Agustus  2019. Material percobaan adalah benih mutan padi gogo hasil iradiasi sinar gamma bersumber dari BB-Biogen Bogor sebanyak 8 nomor, menggunakan Rancangan Acak Kelompok dengan tiga  ulangan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan penampilan beberapa karakter  antar genotipe mutan padi gogo dengan varietas IR-64 dan Situ Bagendit sebagai pembanding. Genotipe dengan jumlah bulir per malai lebih banyak yaitu GT63-E25 (199,57 bulir), GT63-E11 (186,40 bulir) dan GT 73-E45 (189,43 bulir).  Bobot 1000 biji lebih berat yaitu GT73-E45 (26,34 g), GT63-E07 (27,99 g) dan GT63-E25 (27,15 g). Genotype yang mempunyai bobot gabah KA 14 % GT73-E45 (8,99 t ha-1), GT63-E25 (8,53 t ha-1), dan  GT63-E11 (8,24 t ha-1), sedangkan varietas IR 64 (6,60 t ha-1) dan Situ Bagendit (6,71 t ha-1).

The level of productivity of rice plantations can be increased through technical improvements in culture, namely spur plant growth. Increasing the germination rate is done by using growth regulators. Plants have limited synthesizing growth hormones in support of optimal growth. Therefore, it is necessary to add additional growth hormone from outside which can be given through fertilizers and symbiosis of microorganisms, including through the help of growth-regulating bacteria. MO Plus which is a combination of biological fertilizers and microorganisms Bradyrhizobium japonicum which is forming soybean root nodules to take nitrogen directly from the air and Streptomycetes as biological control of plant diseases. Efforts to merge MO Plus with P. polymyxa isolates in a consortium of biological product formulations need to be initiated to stimulate rice germination. The research stage consisted of synergistic tests by growing P. polymyxa bacteria and microbial consortium and calculating the number of bacterial colonies 48 hours in liquid media Nutrient Broth. The ability test produced IAA using L-Triptofan as a precursor, and the ability to produce GA3. The results showed that the levels of IAA and GA3 in Mo plus were 0.095 and 2.225 µg.l−1 respectively, while P. polymyxa: 0.087 and 2.251 µg.l−1. Synergism test results show that P. polymyxa and MO Plus bacteria can be grown on the same media simultaneously with the number of colonies of 2.3.108 CFU/ml. The treatment of MO Plus + Paenybacillus has the best influence on germination, wet weight, and dry weight of rice seeds.

Exploration and Screening for Endophytic Microbes of Maize Plant Root against Fusarium verticillioides. Fusarium verticilloides is an important pathogen of maize which can attack cob and stem causing ear rot and stalk rot disease. Fusarium ear rot disease needs to get a serious attention because the mycotoxins produced by this pathogen very harmful for consumers. The aim of this study was to screen maize roots endophytic microbes as antagonist to F. verticilloides. Endophytes microbial exploration is done by taking samples of local roots of South Sulawesi and hybrid maizes in Soppeng Regency then isolated in Biological Laboratory of Islamic University of Makassar. The endophytes were then tested their effectiveness on inhibiting growth of mycelia pathogenic F. verticilloides by using dual culture method and tested the suppressing ability of F. verticilloides on maize seed and their influence on seed sprout length. The results showed that there were 8 endophytic microbes consisting of 4 isolates of the fungus group namely HS-01, HS-02, HS-04, LS-01 and 4 isolates from bacterial group namely HS-03, LS-02, LS-03, LS-04. While the results of microbial effectiveness testing on pathogenic F. verticilloides showed that HS-04 has the highest percentage of inhibition followed by isolate HS-01, HS-02 and LS-02. HS-04 isolate also showed the ability to suppress F. verticilloides attacks on corn seeds at 77.78%. The highest seed sprout length was shown in LS-02 isolate application about 10.57 cm. Thus it can be concluded that there were 3 potentially endophytic microbes to control the F. verticilloides namely HS-04, HS-01 and LS-02. The ability to stimulate plant growth became one of considerations to select these three microbes.